Within the presentation for its full 12 months 2025 outcomes, Antofagasta PLC stated that innovation will increase its development optionality, with a number of alternatives to extend efficiencies and working scale, as mining operations require more and more complicated administration. It gave some examples of the progress it has already made – fleet autonomy was deployed at Centinela from 2021, plus the miner started utilising Built-in Distant Working Centres from 2023.
Wanting forward it stated research are underway for potential deployment of different in-pit (electrical rail haulage and vertical conveyors) and ex-pit applied sciences (lengthy
distance highway haulage). And in its simply revealed full annual and sustainability studies for 2025, it gave additional examples of innovation. These embrace the trolley help trial at Los Pelambres being superior with Komatsu and ABB – integrating the Energy Agnostic 930E haul truck with ABB Automation’s e-Mine trolley-assist system.
Within the report, Jean-Paul Luksic AMSA Chairman stated: “We proceed to deal with innovation initiatives that strengthen our competitiveness and resilience all through the cycle resembling automation, digitalisation, built-in distant working centres and superior analytics, to enhance security, productiveness and price stability.”
In his assertion, AMSA CEO Iván Arriagada added: “Innovation stays a key enabler of our working mannequin and future development. By means of the enlargement of the working mannequin for our Built-in Distant Working Centres in 2025, we’re enhancing efficiency by means of real-time monitoring, superior analytics and broader integration of operational information throughout a wider vary of actions. Predictive upkeep initiatives are serving to to cut back unplanned downtime and enhance course of stability at our concentrators.”
There are quite a few examples in its concentrator (and mining) operations of AMSA’s use of AI by way of totally different modules of its SIRO (Built-in System of Operational Suggestions). For instance, this was deployed at Los Pelambres’ SAG mill in 2025, with the purpose of optimising grinding by figuring out and minimising operational constraints. The system’s machine studying elevated unconstrained SAG mill working hours by roughly 4% in comparison with 2024, instantly boosting throughput and lowering course of variability. SAG mill availability throughout the 12 months reached 94.4%. These enhancements contributed to greater copper output and extra steady operations, whereas additionally supporting predictive upkeep and asset reliability.
In 2025, Centinela additionally applied an SIRO therapy system (MINCO) to optimise concentrator operations. This superior platform makes use of historic course of information and mineralogical traits to generate prescriptive suggestions for grinding and flotation. By integrating real-time analytics, SIRO MINCO has enabled operators to regulate key parameters, leading to a 1% enhance in throughput and a 0.75 proportion level enhance in recoveries. The system additionally improved course of stability and decreased variability, supporting Centinela’s drive in direction of operational excellence.
In 2025, Antucoya absolutely deployed the SIRO Ácido platform, integrating real-time ore characterisation and leaching optimisation throughout its operation. This digital innovation, beforehand generally known as Mineral Tracker 2.0, enabled a 0.8 proportion level enhance in copper restoration, whereas additionally saving greater than 1,000 tonnes of sulphuric acid, and lowering water consumption by 5% (in comparison with 2024). The system’s predictive analytics improved ore stacking and irrigation methods,
supporting a 1-2 proportion level enhance in restoration charges. These achievements show Antucoya’s dedication to operational excellence and sustainable useful resource use.
Wanting once more at open pit mining, again in February 2026, Minera Centinela achieved two important milestones associated to its enlargement mission: it started working an preliminary fleet of six autonomous vehicles on the Encuentro Sulfuros open pit mine and energised the DMC electrical substation, essential steps to make sure the commissioning of its second concentrator plant. This can present the corporate with minerals to course of on the plant at present underneath development, in addition to the power wanted for its operation. “These steps reinforce our management within the mining of the longer term, based mostly on security, productiveness, and innovation, and on the identical time assure two basic provides for Minera Centinela’s enlargement,” said the corporate’s Basic Supervisor, Nicolás Rivera.
The Encuentro Sulfuros operation will progressively enhance its fleet all through 2026 to achieve 26 models. The vehicles themselves weren’t specified however the firm shared a picture from the mission of an autonomous 400 ton (363 t) class Komatsu 980E being loaded by a Komatsu WE2350 wheel loader. Along with electrical and hydraulic shovels, help tools, and lightweight automobiles, its operation can have a fleet of as much as 53 items of apparatus. This new open pit replicates the Esperanza Sur mannequin, inaugurated in 2023, which till now was Antofagasta Minerals’ first and solely absolutely autonomous open pit and makes use of a fleet of autonomous 290 t class Komatsu 930E vehicles with the Frontrunner AHS system from Komatsu.
On the mining district degree, the combination of Esperanza, Esperanza Sur, and Encuentro Sulfuros will permit Minera Centinela to maneuver between 1.2 and 1.5 million tonnes per day, positioning it among the many high 15 copper operations on this planet and as one of many largest gold producers within the nation. The primary blast at Encuentro Sulfuros occurred in August 2025. This growth has an funding of greater than US$1 billion, which is added to the US$4.4 billion of the expansion mission at present underneath development, generally known as Nueva Centinela.
One other current milestone is the energisation of the DMC electrical substation, equipped by Siemens Power, which can guarantee the provision of power from renewable sources for the commissioning and operation of the mission. “This is a vital symbolic second, as a result of it concentrates the power for the brand new plant. It’s the results of strong teamwork between operations and the mission crew,” highlighted Rivera.
Its commissioning took 21.5 months of labor by totally different groups. The Nueva Centinela Challenge Supervisor, Carlos Ruiz, praised the security efficiency throughout that stage, which “displays rigorous planning and a powerful dedication to security as a core worth, attaining a profitable handover to operations.” The DMC electrical substation, which has a capability of 120 MVA (Megavolt-Amperes), receives power at 220 kV from the Centinela Substation by means of a transmission line that extends for greater than 12 kilometres.
It then transforms the voltage to the 23 kV required for the pre-commissioning, start-up, and operation phases of the brand new plant. The set up, which has already obtained authorisation from the Superintendency of Electrical energy and Fuels and the Nationwide Electrical Coordinator, units a precedent for the business by utilising worldwide requirements of reliability and resilience, with new technical specs examined in specialised laboratories in Wuhan, China, underneath excessive situations. One other innovation includes using 220 kV service station voltage transformers (SSVTs), which permits for a smaller substation design whereas guaranteeing excessive provide reliability.
The enlargement course of at Minera Centinela has seen different important progress. By the tip of 2025, 32 million work hours had been gathered with out fatalities, 11,500 tons of steel buildings had been erected, 8.5 million cubic metres of earth had been moved, and 550 kilometres {of electrical} cables had been put in – equal to the gap of a highway journey between the cities of Santiago and Concepción. On the identical time, 29 items of mining tools have been imported, assembled, and are actually operational, together with 11 haul vehicles outfitted with autonomous working kits and two electrical shovels. In the course of the previous 12 months, greater than 90% of the mechanical and structural meeting of the first crusher and significant concentrator tools was accomplished, together with the 2 ball mills, the gearless mill drive system (GMD), and the high-pressure grinding rolls (HPGR).
In 2025, Centinela launched a brand new know-how – ShovelSense (equipped by MineSense Applied sciences) – as a pilot mission to assist additional optimise ore loading, by means of using high-speed X-Ray Fluorescence Evaluation (XRF). With on the spot ore identification and grade characterisation by way of deposit-specific algorithms, ShovelSense is a technological answer that helps to determine copper and gold grades (amongst different components) throughout loading operations. By analysing materials throughout loading, operators are in a position to redirect haul vehicles by way of the Fleet Administration System. This method goals to assist cut back ore dilution, and forestall waste from coming into the processing plant, as we cease ore being despatched to waste dumps. The know-how was just lately applied on a second rope shovel at Centinela, together with implementation at Antucoya, serving to the Group to understand comparable positive factors throughout the portfolio.
Orica’s OREPRo™ 3D is a complicated digital answer getting used to optimise blast zoning in open-pit mining operations at Los Pelambres. By integrating geological fashions, ore characterisation and predictive analytics, OREPro allows higher precision in blast design and zoning, guaranteeing higher separation of ore and waste throughout blasting. This method reduces ore dilution and minimises losses, thereby supporting working groups to enhance restoration charges and efficiencies in downstream processing. By means of enhanced materials characterisation and blast zoning higher aligned with geological variability, OREPro has contributed to the optimisation of the mining course of, delivering enhancements of roughly 5% in fragmentation indicators. These enhancements have supported a extra environment friendly and steady operation, with constructive impacts on productiveness and working prices.
A remaining instance from Zaldívar in 2025 was the implementation of Machine Imaginative and prescient, a real-time synthetic intelligence system designed to observe tools throughout its essential plant belongings. Machine Imaginative and prescient is a know-how switch from Centinela to Zaldívar, whereby cameras are used to observe the situation of apparatus and permit for the early detection of degradation and potential failure, significantly in heavy-duty, hazardous settings. At Zaldívar, Machine Imaginative and prescient has been deployed to routinely detect cracks within the apron feeders related to the ore crushing methods, with on-line monitoring.
