Chuquicamata Union Advocates Against Codelco Privatization in Senate Mining Committee Meeting

El Ciudadano

Original article: Sindicato de Chuquicamata expuso en Comisión de Minería del Senado que alcanzó acuerdo unánime contra la privatización de Codelco

The Chuquicamata Union, led by President Hernán Guerrero, participated in the latest session of the Senate Mining Committee in Valparaíso, where legislators unanimously endorsed an important agreement opposing the privatization of Codelco.

During their presentation, the union emphasized the state-owned company’s contributions to Chile, noting that it is a strategic firm and a world leader in copper, «crucial for the economic, social, and technological development of the country.»

«Historical cumulative estimates indicate that Codelco has contributed $165 billion directly to the Chilean state from 1973 to 2025,» stated the union, particularly highlighting the figures for 2025, where the effective contribution to the treasury reached $1.778 billion.

Additionally, they highlighted a production increase in 2025 compared to 2024, ranging from +0.4% to +0.5%, detailing total production of 1,439,732 fine metric tons—including associated companies—and 1,334,445 fine metric tons of their own production.

The union also drew attention to the issue of shipping concentrates and critical minerals, revealing that the current modalities are leading to significant losses for the state, estimated by a customs study at $129 billion, relating to the entire mining industry operating in the country.

«These are opportunities in strategic and critical minerals. Many only speak of rare earths, but copper, lithium, acid, and all by-products from smelting and refining processes are also involved, and today Chile is wasting all of them,» explained Hernán Guerrero.

«Just imagine if we processed this; if we could smelt only the concentrates produced by Codelco, we would generate $30 billion, paying off the company’s current debt of $24 billion in the process. This presents a substantial challenge for us as a nation to smelt and refine our concentrates, generating more jobs, productive chains, engineering, development, and technology. We have said it before, and we will keep saying it,» added the leader.

Controversy Over Bonus Repayment

Regarding the controversy over production bonuses, where some right-wing politicians have suggested that workers should return bonuses obtained for this item, the union dismissed this claim, stating they had indeed met the production goals.

«We are not required to return the bonus because it is part of our collective agreement, and it is a bonus subject to production. From our side, we have met those goals: by November 2025, we as the Chuquicamata Division had achieved 110% of the targets, and the maximum bonus we received was at 102%,» affirmed Guerrero.

«Therefore, the adjustment that was improperly made did not affect us in the case of Chuquicamata because we had already met the target by November 2025,» underlined the union president.

Proposals

Finally, the union presented several proposals, including the establishment of a National Commission for the Development and Strengthening of Codelco, aimed at defining a roadmap for the short, medium, and long term with an economic, social, strategic, legislative, and developmental state vision, involving workers, academia, technical experts, the political realm, and the state.

As a primary objective for this body, they proposed to «develop concrete and measurable proposals with a sense of urgency and within a limited timeframe.»

«Codelco is more than just a company; it is a development strategy. It’s not merely an economic business, and we want to emphasize this above all, so that those who express opinions look at it not just as an economic business but as a strategic asset for the state and all Chileans,» emphasized Hernán Guerrero.

Thus, once the union’s presentation concluded, the present senators, led by Commission President Senator Yasna Provoste, unanimously endorsed the agreement to «defend the state character of Codelco, rejecting any attempts to weaken its public nature, fragment its assets, or diminish its role in national development.»