Dear shareholders,
As energy security and the transition to electrification continue to gather pace today, we see the opportunity ahead to supply the world with the copper that it needs to realise its environmental, social and economic goals. Societies around the world are accelerating their electricity use, with emerging technologies such as AI, data centres and smart grids, putting electricity use at the heart of our day-to-day lives. Our business is to provide the copper needed now and in the future in a responsible and sustainable way while creating significant shareholder value.
As a copper producer, we help facilitate this change through our pipeline of growth projects, with our programme at Los Pelambres (in central Chile) and Centinela (in the north of Chile) set to deliver over 30% growth in production, all of which we are advancing today. The medium-term outlook for copper is strong, driven by a combination of rising global demand and increasing constraints on global supply, with a lack of investment in existing mines and declining discovery rates for new deposits. This is having an impact on the balance of the copper market, with strong supply and demand fundamentals expected ahead
Our focus remains on safe and sustainable production, with strong financial performance enabling a balance of growth and shareholder returns. Through profitable production, and robust market conditions, we saw a 5% increase in revenue and an 11% increase in EBITDA1 in 2024. Applying our capital allocation framework, the Board of Directors (Board) has recommended a final dividend for 2024 of 23.5 US cents per share that, if approved at the Company’s AGM, will take total dividends for the year to the equivalent of 50% of net earnings.
Annual Report 2024
At Antofagasta, we recognise our role in society: supplying copper the world needs, engaging with local communities where we operate, creating jobs, skills and livelihoods, generating revenue for our host nations, and being a responsible steward of the environment. By fostering a positive culture and maintaining safe working environments, we have successfully operated our business model which led to record safety performance at our operations in 2024. This is all underpinned by our five strategic pillars that are at the core of everything we do: safety and sustainability, people and culture, competitiveness, innovation and growth.
Workforce safety
Health and safety remains at the forefront of our approach, which is critical for the success of responsible mining. We were pleased to once again have delivered a fatality-free year, as well as a record low injury frequency rate, an achievement that required continuous effort and oversight to ensure best practices throughout our operations. Highlights included the implementation of a new operational excellence management system, with our Mining and Transport Divisions delivering sequentially lower injury frequency rates in 2024 and Zaldívar completing the year without a single high-potential incident, which is a key leading indicator of safety.
Operational resilience
We produced 664,000 tonnes of copper in 2024, maintaining our position as one of the world’s largest pure-play copper producers. Furthermore, we maintained our costs in 2024 at a time of significant inflation across the global mining industry.
During the year, we ramped up to design capacity the first phase of the desalination plant and sea water transport system at Los Pelambres, while also successfully bringing the newly commissioned fourth SAG milling line into operation. At Centinela Concentrates, we encountered lower copper grades, and therefore while the concentrator plant performed well, copper production was reduced compared to the prior year. At the same time, Centinela Cathodes reported a very strong year as a result of higher grades, with Antucoya registering a record level of production.
At Zaldívar, we face a different challenge. With operational permits due to expire in May 2025, we are working with the authorities to extend these permits and to realise the full potential of Zaldívar’s 1 billion tonne resource by extending its mine life to 2051. We have a plan in place to maintain our workforce and continue generating value to support local communities, and we are working constructively with the authorities to resolve this matter.
Strategic growth
We are at a pivotal stage in the delivery of our growth strategy, executing on several brownfield transformational projects that will position us well for the future. We are in an enviable position as our growth projects are within our existing sites which means that they can add value with reduced risk, cost and time to delivery. Our focus with growth is to add stakeholder value, through investing in the right projects, at the right time, which we feel is now given the copper market’s tightening fundamentals. Initial construction work on our projects started well in 2024, with our major projects developing on schedule and on budget.
At Los Pelambres, in March 2024, we hosted a high-level delegation of Chilean government representatives to inaugurate our new desalination plant, part of the Phase 1 Expansion Project. Through an investment of more than $2 billion in this expansion, we are already benefitting from increased ore processing capacity and water availability, which helped underpin the robust financial performance at Los Pelambres in 2024. Construction is already underway on the next phase, to further expand desalination capacity and a new concentrate pipeline, and we are pleased to report that this work is continuing in line with expectations. Further to the north, Centinela has now begun full construction of the Second Concentrator Project, which will add 170,000 copper-equivalent tonnes of production from 2027.1 This is one of the largest copper projects in construction in the world today and will also supplement Centinela’s competitiveness through a greater focus on by-products and modern technologies, helping us to make the most of our significant resource potential. Undertaking significant investments such as these requires a strong balance sheet and an innovative approach to financing, which are key components of our business model as we look to deliver industry-leading levels of growth in the copper sector.
Beyond Chile, we consolidated our investment in Compañía de Minas Buenaventura S.A.A. during 2024, and we continue to advance our own exploration presence in Peru, deploying our decades-long experience and understanding of copper in this jurisdiction. In the United States, we remain committed to Twin Metals Minnesota as part of our long-term growth pipeline, with litigation underway to challenge several actions taken in 2021 by the US federal government that have deterred its development into one of America’s top mines for a range of critical minerals.
Sustainability in our purpose
Sustainability remains a key priority for us. We have long-life mines, with mineral resources that have the potential to support mining for many decades. Our responsible operating and business practices to support positive relationships with our stakeholders and the environment have been in place for many years but we are always striving for improvement that benefits all. Effective engagement with our workforce, local communities, local authorities and financial investors enables us to operate our business model and generate stakeholder value. In 2024, we celebrated the tenth anniversary of Somos Choapa, our flagship programme for engaging with communities close to Los Pelambres. During this time, we have delivered over 150 projects in clean water supply, education and health, working together with our communities. Where it is practical to do so, we have set targets in areas of sustainability, such as responsible water sourcing, emissions reduction, engagement with local businesses, and building and developing an inclusive workforce, and these are a demonstration of our commitment to the path ahead. In 2024, we updated our emissions reduction targets and published our Climate Action Plan, which jointly serve to outline our expected decarbonisation journey.
Through our sustainability efforts, we have received external recognition for all our mines in the form of accreditation by the Copper Mark. In November, Centinela and Zaldívar were confirmed as being the first copper mines in the world to re-certify under the Copper Mark’s new, expanded set of 33 criteria, covering environmental, social and governance-related factors.
Innovation
The global copper industry is facing further technical, social and economic challenges that put constraints on increasing supply, at a time when the world requires record levels of copper to fuel economic development and decarbonisation. As a result, innovation is central to successful copper mining. We have over 40 years of experience in producing copper, and innovation is an intrinsic aspect of our business. We are developing new technologies, such as our own Cuprochlor-T® for primary sulphide leaching, which means we expect to be able to produce copper from material that was previously uneconomic. We are also fast followers of new developments, utilising existing technologies to utilise raw sea water in processing, deploying automation so our workers can operate remotely, and using advanced analytics such as AI to increase production and cut costs. We have developed a culture throughout our organisation to encourage innovation and identify new opportunities.
Governance
We continued to refresh the composition of our Board and Committees in 2024, as the Company enters its next phase of investment and growth. The current composition of our Board reflects a diverse balance of Chilean and international experience across a wide range of skills and backgrounds, including finance, technical mining, sustainability and exploration, which puts us in a strong position to oversee the successful future development of our business. In March 2025, Vivianne Blanlot resigned from the Board with effect from 31 March 2025, having served as a Director for 11 years. I would like to thank Vivianne for her contribution to the Board, including her distinguished leadership of the Sustainability and Stakeholder Management Committee.
Outlook
Macroeconomic conditions are continually evolving, with 2025 bringing a presidential election in Chile and a new presidential term in the United States. Chile has now settled several recent deliberations relating to the Constitution and mining royalty, and our expectation is that the country’s political system will now be empowered to focus on core concerns related to promoting economic growth, attracting investment and delivering improvements in public security, which have become a major challenge and a very apparent priority for the population. Recent years have been characterised by a global reshaping of supply chains and the emergence of potential capacity constraints for critical materials. At the same time, the recent resurgence in Chile of inflation and lower economic growth has led to a tighter fiscal balance. The opportunity now exists to pursue policies that are more decisively orientated towards growth, to benefit both living standards and the business environment in Chile, which will ultimately provide for a more permanent and sustainable fiscal income
We are, however, cognisant of the near-term risks and uncertainty related to the current global economic environment and evolving geopolitical landscape. In this environment, our focus remains on managing our cost base and successful project execution, which will be critical to maintaining our competitiveness and creating value for all our stakeholders for decades to come. Our organic brownfield growth portfolio and strong balance sheet gives us the opportunity to deliver value-accretive growth at the right time, given the continuing build-up of supply-side capacity constraints in global copper markets. Through a resolute focus on project delivery, in parallel to our core strategic values, we are positioned strongly for the future.
Our success is predicated on the support of all our stakeholders, and I would like to thank every one of our partners, customers, suppliers, investors, governments and communities who supported us in 2024. Above all, I want to thank our colleagues across our operations who are safely and responsibly helping us deliver on our purpose of developing mining for a better future
JEAN-PAUL LUKSIC
CHAIRMAN