Codelco fires eight in over-reported output probe

Chile's state miner Codelco said on Thursday it had dismissed eight people, including executives, managers at its Chuquicamata, Ministro Hales and Salvador divisions and professionals at its corporate headquarters, as its investigation into over-reported copper production in 2024 and 2025 widens.

Why it matters: Codelco is one of the world's largest copper producers, and the dismissals move the output probe from an accounting question to named accountability at three divisions; any revision to 2024 and 2025 production would change the supply record the copper market has traded on.

Data as of October 29, 2026. The dismissals are Codelco's statement of October 29, 2026 as reported by Reuters the same day; the full Reuters article carried by Mining Weekly (two paragraphs) was read in full in this run. It names no individuals and gives no tonnage figure for the over-reported output, and none is claimed here. The probe background is Reuters reporting of October 6 and 7, 2026 on Codelco's production audit. Developing item.

Codelco said on Thursday it had dismissed eight people, including executives, amid its investigation into over-reported copper production in 2024 and 2025, Reuters reported. Those dismissed include managers at the Chuquicamata, Ministro Hales and Salvador divisions, as well as professionals from Codelco’s corporate headquarters.

The probe opened in October, when Codelco said an audit of its 2024 and 2025 production had found that output at Ministro Hales and Salvador may have been inflated because the same material was recorded as production by more than one division. The company commissioned EY to run an external audit, referred its findings to Chile’s public prosecutor, and had already dismissed one executive over an earlier finding that material still needing further processing was reported as finished copper at Chuquicamata and Ministro Hales.

Codelco fires eight in over-reported output probe

Sources