Chile’s Ministry of Well being’s this month formally authorised the usage of copper slag in infrastructure together with as synthetic mixture in development reminiscent of for highway surfaces, bringing a worth add and essential circularity profit to what’s a significant important waste product within the nation’s copper trade.
Copper slag is outlined within the decree “as that waste that’s produced on account of high-temperature smelting processes. This residue is principally composed of iron oxides and silica, which is why it’s also referred to as iron silicate, together with small quantities of different components reminiscent of aluminum (Al), titanium (Ti), calcium (Ca) and magnesium (Mg).”
Promulgated on October 23 and made authorized when it was printed on February 12, 2026, Supreme Decree 46’s Article 3 additional states: “Copper slag could solely be used as a man-made mixture for development and manufacture, with prior sanitary authorisation from the respective Regional Ministerial Secretariat of Well being, which shall be granted completely for the makes use of specified within the utility and offered that they meet the necessities and circumstances established in these rules.”
Joaquín Villarino Herrera, Government President of Consejo Minero described it as a concrete advance to advertise the round economic system in mining, “reworking a historic environmental legal responsibility right into a helpful useful resource for highway paving, prefabrication and infrastructure works, with demanding sanitary, traceability and leaching management requirements.”
However he added that this regulation has not come out of nowhere – actually it’s the results of years of articulated work between the general public sector, led by the Ministry of Well being along with the portfolios of Mining, Public Works and Surroundings, and companion firms of Consejo Minero, reminiscent of Codelco and Anglo American, which have promoted profitable pilots such because the Loncura highway in Ventanas or paving on the Chagres Smelter and Las Tórtolas plant.
Miner Anglo American has been a significant proponent of copper slag reuse for some years, and has carried out a number of detailed background and technical work main as much as this improvement. “The approval of this regulation represents a key step in shifting in direction of extra trendy and accountable mining. At Anglo American, for greater than a decade we have now gathered technical info and performed research with varied universities to then show via concrete pilot initiatives that it’s doable to make use of copper slag safely, with scientific backing and with actual advantages, analyses that laid the muse for the regulation lately printed,” says Juan Pablo Schaeffer, Anglo American Vice President of Company Affairs and Sustainability.
For example, within the metropolis of Catemu, Anglo American restored a public house for the group through the use of a mix of copper slag and aggregates for the development of a brand new plaza. This was a pilot mission with scientific backing from the Pontifical Catholic College of Valparaiso.
At Anglo’s Chagres smelter in 2025 it paved 1,630 m² of inside roads, the place greater than 95% of the supplies have been slag from the smelter. And at its Las Tórtolas plant it constructed a 500 m highway incorporating mixtures of chemically stabilised slag and tailings. These initiatives have been a part of a collaboration settlement with the Chilean Ministry of Public Works.
Katherine Ferrada Environmental Supervisor at Anglo “For us, this announcement may be very related, as a result of at Anglo American we have now all the time believed that mining ought to be a part of the answer and never a part of the issue. Slag is a large waste product of the smelter, and, being positioned – via our Chagres Smelter – within the Aconcagua River basin, we have now seen for years the impression of mixture extraction, particularly in a context of extended drought. Reusing slag not solely permits us to take duty for a legal responsibility, but additionally to contribute to lowering that environmental strain, incorporating a round economic system strategy into the smelter, and producing a concrete profit for the area.”
Codelco has additionally been a supporter of the circularity advantages of the reuse of copper slag use for a few years. In its case, the closure of the Ventanas Smelter introduced a chance to materialise the efforts of greater than a decade to make viable the reuse of the fabric amassed in its slag deposit, positioned on the aspect of Route F 30, in Puchuncavi. Additionally working with the Pontifical Catholic College of Valparaiso, Codelco restored public areas in a historic neighbourhood of Quintero, utilizing copper slag from the previous Ventanas Smelter as a base enter within the manufacture of tiles, paving stones and concrete furnishings.
