El Abra mine
Mine in El Loa, Chile
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The El Abra mine is a large copper mine located in northern Chile in the El Loa province.[2] It is operated by American mining company Freeport-McMoRan, who owns a 51% stake in the mine,[3] with the remainder owned by the Chilean state-owned Codelco.[2] The stake owned by Freeport-McMoRan originally owned by Cyprus Amax Minerals and Lac Minerals until Phelps Dodge acquired Cyprus Minerals and Lac minerals was absorbed by Barric Gold in 1994.[4] These two companies had won a bid to engage in a partnership with Codelco.[5] It was then owned by Phelps Dodge until 2007 when Freeport-McMoRan completed a $25.9 billion acquisition of Phelps Dodge.[6][7] The mine holds The Copper Mark environmental certificate.[8]
  El Abra mine  El Abra mine | |
| Location | |
|---|---|
| Province | El Loa |
| Country | Chile |
| Coordinates | 21°55′14″S 68°50′00″W |
| Production | |
| Products | Copper Molybdenum Gold Silver |
| Production | 99,100 tonnes of copper[1] |
| Financial year | 2024 |
| Owner | |
| Company | Freeport-McMoRan (51%) Codelco (49%) |
The development of the previously unexploited El Abra ores as a joint venture was enabled by the law Ley N° 19.137 of 1992 which allowed Codelco to sell its assests with the previous approval by the Chilean Copper Commission and allowed the company to form joint ventures.[9] In the bid process nine proposals were evaluated by Codelco which settled for the joint bid of Cyprus Minerals and Lac Minerals.[5] The bid process suffered however from an overestimation of resources by 14% which caused the winning party, Cyprus Amax Minerals (renamed after a 1993 merger with AMAX Inc.) and Lac Minerals, to renegotiate the acquisition down to US$345 million from the previous price of US$405 million. Codelco reportedly did not contest the new proposed price as a matter of the precedent failed negotiations would create for future joint ventures.[4]
The mine's annual produce lies since 2016 in the range of 70 to 100 kMT copper fines.[1] Previously, from 2005 to 2015 the annual produce was in the range of 120 to 220 kMT copper fines.[1] As of 2025 it was Chile's 17th most productive copper mine.[1]