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Chile copper grades fell, raising power use per tonne of output

Cochilco data show copper mining electricity intensity rose 68% to 5.16 MWh per tonne in 2024, as grades dropped to 0.62% from 0.93% in 2005.

Reported · Written up by our desk · Mining

Chile’s copper mining is consuming substantially more electricity per tonne of metal as declining ore grades increase the physical demands of mining and processing, a trend the industry expects to intensify pressure on the country’s power system, Mining.com writes. The source cites Cochilco figures showing average reported copper grades fell by one-third to 0.62% in 2024 from 0.93% in 2005. Over the same period, sector electricity intensity, measured as total electricity consumed by Chilean copper mining per tonne of copper produced, climbed 68% to 5.16 MWh per tonne from 3.07 MWh.

Mining.com notes that falling grades and higher electricity intensity move together, with a Pearson correlation of -0.91 across 20 annual observations and an R2 of 0.82 from a simple regression in levels. The outlet cautions that the relationship does not prove causation and that the statistics should not be interpreted as copper grades explaining the entirety of rising power use.

The story also highlights forward-looking implications for electricity planning. Cochilco projects electricity demand from copper mining will rise 20.2% to 33.2 TWh in 2034 from 27.6 TWh in 2025, while copper production is forecast to increase 8.3% over the same period, underscoring that power demand growth could outpace output growth.

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