Mining and mineral investment in South America

All of our operations, projects and investments are located in South America.

Staying in one region is a deliberate choice. The Andean margin, where one tectonic plate has been driving beneath another for tens of millions of years, produced an exceptional concentration of large deposits of different commodities. Few parts of the world offer that range of metals within a single geological setting. At its northern end the chain divides into separate ranges, split by broad river valleys and falling away to lowlands on the Caribbean side. The ground there carries metals such as copper and gold in porphyry systems at depth, gold in epithermal veins through the higher country, and nickel in the deeply weathered laterites below. It also lies closest to Atlantic shipping. East of the mountains, some of the oldest rock on earth carries iron, nickel, bauxite and gold in ancient shield terrain, and the sedimentary basins between the two hold deposits of their own. Much of that ground has been mapped but never drilled to modern standards, and discoveries are still made in districts that have been worked for a century. The conditions around the rock matter as much as the rock itself. Mining has been a principal industry across the continent for generations, so mining title, environmental licensing and foreign investment are governed by frameworks that have been in place for decades and tested many times over. Power is comparatively abundant and increasingly renewable, drawing on substantial hydroelectric capacity and some of the strongest solar resources anywhere. Coasts on two oceans place buyers on both sides of the world within conventional shipping distance. A long mining history has one further benefit. Assets change hands. Mines built and run by others come to market when their owners' priorities move, and a region with decades of production behind it produces a steady supply of them.

Attractive geology alone would not be reason enough to focus on a region. A deposit becomes a mine only if it can be permitted, built, staffed, powered and shipped, and South America has the contractors, engineering firms, laboratories, experienced crews and established ports to do all of that.

Most importantly, the senior management team of Cobreco Invest has worked in South American mining throughout their careers. The combination of the geology, the industry built around it and people who know how to work here is why our expansion is dedicated to South America rather than spread across several regions.

New opportunities are assessed continuously. We focus on taking over mines that are already in production. Cobreco Invest targets working mines with a plant, a permit, a trained workforce and a demonstrated flow of ore, and running mines is what our team has done throughout their careers.