Antofagasta Gets Record Copper Terms, Sources Say

Antofagasta secured record terms in recent copper concentrate auctions, according to one source cited in an October 16 Reuters report. A Centinela tender carried a treatment charge of negative US$310 per metric tonne. It covered 10,000 tonnes of concentrate for November shipment, sources familiar with the transaction said. Antofagasta declined to comment to Reuters. We have not read the auction contracts, so the terms remain a sourced report rather than a company-confirmed settlement.

A second auction covered 40,000 tonnes from Los Pelambres for shipment across 2027, with treatment charges in the negative US$330s per tonne, Reuters reported. Who pays whom? Miners traditionally pay processing charges through deductions from the value of their concentrate. A negative treatment charge reverses that component of the settlement, increasing the seller's receipts with other terms held constant. The buyer effectively pays the miner for access to feed. These are tonnes of concentrate, which contains copper alongside other material, so multiplying the fee by a company's tonnes of copper production would give you the wrong calculation.

For a smelter purchasing at these terms, the treatment-charge component of its margin deteriorates because it still has to pay to process the material. Reuters says sales of sulphuric acid and gold have helped Chinese smelters keep buying at negative charges. That means we need the full economics before calling a cargo profitable or loss-making. The report leaves the auction buyers unnamed, and it does not give the refining charges, metal payables or penalties. We cannot assign these terms to a particular smelter or turn the treatment charge alone into a complete profit estimate.

In Yangshan Copper Premiums Rise as Import Ratio Recovers, we followed China's refined-copper import economics. These reported auctions take us earlier in the production chain, where miners sell feed for smelting. They give us named mines, volumes and shipment periods against which to test the seller's advantage. For you holding Antofagasta, LON: ANTO, the upside is more value retained on qualifying shipments. The limit is the business covered: these auctions do not reprice every existing contract or establish the annual benchmark. We would favour a concentrate seller with room to negotiate fresh business, while keeping its contract mix beside the headline fee.

Antofagasta's August 13 half-year results said lower production and higher input costs partly offset stronger by-product credits. Its October 15 production report then attributed part of the sequential decline in third-quarter cash costs before by-product credits to lower treatment charges. That establishes a cost benefit from lower fees, without attributing an ended quarter to these newly reported auctions. The latest report also raised full-year guidance for costs before by-product credits because diesel remained expensive, and said negotiations continued after two Centinela unions declared a strike. Better terms still need shipments and cost control before they become earnings for the shares you own.

We will watch for annual contract settlements as LME Week begins on October 19, then for delivery of the reported November Centinela cargo.

Seek the truth and be prepared,

Equedia News

Sources

• Reuters, Antofagasta auction terms, October 16, 2026
• Antofagasta, Third-quarter production report, October 15, 2026
• London Metal Exchange, LME Week notice, July 13, 2026
• Antofagasta, Half-year results, August 13, 2026
• Equedia News, Yangshan Copper Premiums Rise as Import Ratio Recovers, October 14, 2026

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