President Bachelet: “Today we can say that the Chilean government is beginning to repay its debt to Codelco.”

Earlier today in the Antofagasta Region of Chile, President Michelle Bachelet, Mining Minister Aurora Williams, and Labor and Social Welfare Minister Ximena Rincón took part in the inauguration of the Ministro Hales Division of Codelco, a structural project which represents an investment of US$3.2 billion.

During her visit, the President greeted a group of 30 members of the division and spoke by radio with other employees. She also climbed into the cabin of a truck driven by 24 year-old Marlín Tapia González.

During her remarks, President Bachelet emphasized that “with the inauguration of the Ministro Hales Division, we are marking an historic milestone in what is everyone’s company: we are taking the first step –of the many steps that we will take- to ensure that Codelco remains on the cutting edge of global mining and can continue to drive Chile’s development.”

The mine was discovered in the mid-1990s and was named after Alejandro Hales Jamarne (1923-2001), a Chilean attorney and politician who served as Mining Minister on three occasions. Studies showed that the mine had world-class reserves with over 1.3 billion tons of resources. Soil movement was conducted between 2011 and 2013, resulting in the largest pit in the history of mining.

The implementation stage began in December 2013 with equipment load tests, and productive scaling started one month later. In 2014, the mine produced over 140,000 tons of fine copper and nearly 250 tons of silver. According to preliminary calculations, it yielded over 238,000 tons of fine copper as well as 300 tons of silver in 2015.

President Bachelet took the opportunity to thank everyone who had made the Ministro Hales Division a reality and reiterated her administration’s commitment to maintaining and increasing Codelco’s production levels in the medium-term. “I would like to note that this is a clear example of an effort that goes beyond a single administration. As Nelson Pizarro said, four governments had the conviction, will, and commitment to do this, and it also responds to the purest of national interest,” she said.

Some 289 million tons of mineral will be extracted from the open pit mine during its first 14 years of operation. After that, the division will shift to an underground regime and its production will continue through its fiftieth year. The division has a staff of 760 people (13% of them women, which is much higher than the industry average of 7.5%) and nearly 1,900 associates with a high proportion of young professionals. (The average age is 38.) Seventy percent of the employees come from the Antofagasta Region.

President Bachelet also noted that over the past 25 years, Codelco has contributed US$84 billion in surpluses to the state, and that those resources have financed public policies that have been fundamental to the country’s economic and human development. However, she noted, the reinvestment in and public contributions to the company have been limited. Only US$4.7 billion has been invested over the past 25 years, a number that is much lower than the average reinvestment of the industry.

She added that, “Today we can say that the Chilean government is beginning to repay its debt to Codelco. It is not doing so with words, but with concrete initiatives like the inauguration of the Ministro Hales Division.”

Bachelet also noted that, “We have capitalized Codelco for up to US$4 billion. This will allow for investments in mining projects, sustainability, mine development, exploration, and the renewal of industrial equipment and plants. Without these initiatives, production would fall dramatically in the medium-term.”

As she finished her remarks, the President stated that, “Talking about Codelco means talking about our past as well as our present. But more than anything, it means talking about our future.” She assured those in attendance that “with this inauguration, we are acting responsibly to protect our assets and are offering real opportunities to build a future that I believe to be a very promising one.”