Energy Trends in Chilean Mining: What the 2024 Cochilco Report Shows

Each year, Cochilco publishes a detailed assessment of how Chile’s mining energy matrix is evolving, and the 2024 edition is one of the most revealing to date. The data shows an industry working harder than ever, digging deeper pits, processing harder ore, and relying increasingly on seawater. These pressures continue to push energy consumption upward. Concentrators now account for more than half of all mining electricity, seawater systems have become one of the largest energy loads, and open-pit fuel intensity has almost doubled over the last decade.

At the same time, the sector is undergoing a significant transformation. Mining has rapidly accelerated its shift toward cleaner power, with renewables supplying nearly all the electricity used by major operations, a major achievement for a sector with rising energy demand. Electrification is also advancing across light fleets and transport systems, reducing emissions per unit of energy consumed.

For mining suppliers, understanding these shifts is essential. These trends highlight exactly where efficiency challenges are growing and where new technologies can deliver the greatest value, reducing fuel use, optimizing concentrator performance, supporting electrification, and improving energy efficiency across the mining chain.

Total Energy Use Continues to Rise Faster than Production

In 2024, copper mining consumed 199,452 terajoules (TJ) of energy. This represents:

• +4.1 percent compared to 2023
• +53.9 percent compared to 2010

Despite the surge in energy use, copper output has barely shifted, rising only 1.6 percent since 2010. The growing disconnect between effort and production highlights a simple reality: Chile is now mining deeper, tougher, and more complex ore bodies, and each tonne requires more energy than the one before.

 A Shift in the Energy Mix, but Fuels and Electricity Remain Balanced

The energy mix in 2024 was:

• 51.3% electricity
• 48.7% fuels

Fuel consumption has increased 60.2 percent since 2010, surpassing electricity’s 48.4 percent growth. Diesel continues to dominate the fuel mix at 92 percent. This reflects the core operational reality of Chilean mining today: deeper open pits demand more hauling, and hauling demands diesel.

Where the Energy Goes: Open Pit Mining Dominates

Three processes account for over 80 percent of all energy consumption:

• Open-pit mining (Mina Rajo): 42%
• Concentration: 29%
• Lixiviation (SX-EW): 10%

Open-pit operations consumed 83,508 TJ in 2024, making them by far the biggest energy users in the sector. Their demand has risen 79 percent since 2010 as pits deepen and haulage distances expand. Concentrators show an even sharper increase, up 89.4 percent over the decade, reflecting the move toward sulfide processing. Meanwhile, SX-EW has contracted, consistent with the 41.4 percent fall in cathode output.

Electricity Use Driven by Concentrators and Seawater

Electricity consumption reached 102,307 TJ in 2024, up 5.7 percent from 2023. The biggest forces behind the increase are:

• Concentrators, which now absorb 56 percent of all electricity in mining
• Seawater desalination and pumping, which has grown 330 percent in a decade

In 2024, seawater desalination and pumping required 11,308 TJ, placing it as the fourth-largest energy-consuming process in the mining industry. The rise of seawater usage shows how northern Chile’s extreme water scarcity is transforming mining’s energy footprint and pushing operators toward more energy-intensive solutions

Unit Energy Use Rising: Lower Grades Hit Hard

One of the most important findings in the report is the growing intensity of energy use. In 2024, producing one tonne of fine copper required 36.2 GJ, a 51.5 percent increase compared to 2010. The key drivers being:

• Ore grades dropped from 0.75% to 0.62% (–17.6%)
• Longer haulage distances in open pits
• More seawater processing
• Increasing rock hardness affecting grinding

Open-pit operations now require almost twice as much fuel per tonne as they did in 2010, an increase of 98.6 percent. Electricity use in concentrators has also climbed 46.2 percent per tonne of copper. These numbers make one point very clear: the industry is exerting significantly more effort to extract and process the same metal.

Sustainability: Renewables and Electrification Advance

One of the strongest positive signals is in the power matrix:

• 78 percent of mining electricity came from renewable sources in 2024.
• 94 percent of the copper mining sector is now subject to the Energy Efficiency Law.
• 76 percent of major operations have electromobility or low-emission transport plans.
• Electric buses and light-duty vehicles are increasingly used for worker transport and internal operations.

These initiatives cannot fully offset the underlying increase in energy intensity driven by deeper pits, lower grades, and seawater use. However, they significantly reduce emissions per unit of energy consumed. The rapid adoption of renewables and the growing use of electric transport mean that, although mining requires more energy, the carbon footprint associated with that energy is steadily decreasing.

Smelters and Refineries: Structural Constraints Remain

The report highlights the operational and regulatory challenges facing smelting and refining:

• Tighter SO₂ and air quality rules (DS N°28)
• Investments in environmental infrastructure
• Fewer operational furnaces and extended shutdowns
• Reduced installed capacity nationwide
• Higher electricity demands due to environmental systems and modernization

Refineries continue to struggle with low utilization rates, in some cases running at under 50 percent of their installed capacity. Such underuse not only distorts unit energy indicators—since fixed energy systems operate regardless of throughput—but also weakens Chile’s overall capacity to refine concentrates within the country. The result is a system that processes less domestically and relies more heavily on concentrate exports..

 Conclusion

Chile’s 2024 energy data shows an industry facing unavoidable structural pressures: lower grades, deeper pits, and growing reliance on seawater are all pushing energy demand upward. Concentrators and seawater systems are now at the centre of mining’s electricity use, while smelters and refineries continue to struggle under regulatory and operational constraints. At the same time, the sector is rapidly decarbonising, 78 percent renewable electricity and expanding electrification in light fleets, yet these gains cannot fully counter the geological realities driving higher consumption.

For suppliers, knowing how and where energy use is increasing helps them tailor their value proposition. If open pits are consuming nearly double the fuel per tonne, or if seawater pumping is now the fourth-largest energy load, then technologies that reduce haulage, improve grinding efficiency, or optimize water systems will resonate far more. Understanding these trends enables suppliers to speak the miner’s language – cost, efficiency, energy, and reliability.

The challenge for the decade ahead will be balancing this rising energy footprint with the need to remain cost-competitive and environmentally responsible. Chilean mining is becoming more demanding, but it is also becoming more modern, efficient, and sustainable. Navigating these opposing forces will define the next chapter of copper production in a world where demand for the metal continues to grow.

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