Chile copper producers begin talks on combining smelter efforts

Codelco and Enami, Chile’s two state copper companies, are discussing the possibility of combining their respective efforts to expand smelting capacity into a single project, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

A new working group is looking into collaboration between a project to overhaul a shuttered Enami smelter and a separate proposal to build a new plant being organized by Codelco, said the people, who asked not to be identified given the talks are private and at an early stage. Cooperation may be limited to ensuring they align with national processing needs or may extend to an amalgamation in which one project replaces the other, they said.