Antofagasta (LON: ANTO) shares were trading about 5.5% lower in early trade today after the Chile-focused copper miner reported a 7% rise in third-quarter output. The quote at 8:10 am UK time was 3,374.56p, against yesterday’s close of 3,572p.
The price sits below every daily close of the past three months, whose lowest was 3,465p on the 20th of July. The day’s low so far is 3,312p, and the highest close in the window was 4,081p on the 8th of September.
Copper output reached 151.9kt (thousand tonnes), up from 142.0kt in the second quarter. The gain came from Los Pelambres, where production rose 17.5% to 79.3kt on higher recoveries and a drawdown of about 7,000t of inventory built in a prior period. Throughput there was lower after a July weather event and a temporary pause.
Elsewhere output fell. Centinela slipped 3.1% to 46.8kt and Zaldívar, in which Antofagasta holds 50%, dropped 18.4% to 7.1kt. Output for the year to date is 436.9kt, 8.3% below the 476.6kt of a year earlier.
Antofagasta lifted its 2026 guidance for cash costs before by-product credits (the income from gold and moly sold alongside copper) to $2.60-$2.70 a pound from $2.40-$2.60, citing elevated diesel prices. Third-quarter cash costs on that measure were $2.73 a pound, 7.1% lower than in the second quarter.
The 2026 copper target is unchanged at 625,000-655,000t. On our arithmetic, the fourth quarter would need roughly 188-218kt to reach it, against 151.9kt in the third. The company expects grades and throughput at Los Pelambres to rise in the fourth quarter.
After the quarter ended, two unions at Centinela, representing about 20% of its own employees, declared a strike. Negotiations are continuing, and the company gave no estimate of any effect on production.
Antofagasta also set 2027 copper guidance at 630,000-690,000t, reflecting higher grades at Los Pelambres partly offset by lower grades at Centinela Concentrates. Chief executive Iván Arriagada said:
Looking ahead, we have announced 2027 copper production guidance of 630,000–690,000 tonnes, reflecting higher grades at Los Pelambres and lower grades at Centinela Concentrates.
Iván Arriagada, chief executive of Antofagasta
Cost and capital spending guidance for 2027 will come with the fourth-quarter report in January 2027.