Ecuador eyes 2026 tender for $3B Llurimagua copper project

Ecuador’s state mining business Enami intends to release a global tender in 2026 for the $3 billion Llurimagua copper-molybdenum job after Chile’s Codelco exited the joint venture.

Llurimagua, in Imbabura district concerning 80 kilometres northeast of Quito, might generate approximately 210,000 tpa of copper over a 27-year mine life from a 982-million-tonne source. Enami at first progressed the job with Codelco, which finished expedition and financial research studies and authorized an investor arrangement in 2015, later on validating it had actually fulfilled concurred landmarks.

The companions reached definitive terms in 2019, which would certainly have provided Enami 51% and Codelco 49%, however they never ever included the joint venture, partly due to the fact that Enami might not fund its share of growth expenses. Enami had actually claimed it would certainly auction its 51% risk once the business was created.

Relationships deteriorated after Ecuador changed its mining legislation in 2020, endangering Codelco’s legal rights over concerning 42,600 hectares of expedition ground, and collaboration in between both state-run business came to a stop in 2021, when Codelco applied for international arbitration

The disagreement wrapped up in July 2025, with the International Court of Settlement of the International Chamber of Business denying Codelco’s insurance claims for greater than $567 million in problems and granting $25.3 million, listed below the approximately $40 million Codelco claimed it spent.

Coppermania

The timing might favour Enami as rate of interest in copper growth jobs remains to speed up. China’s CMOC Mining acquired in April Lumina Gold for C$581 million to acquire the Cangrejos gold-copper job in Ecuador, although a last exploitation agreement continues to be anonymous in spite of a 2024 arrangement on crucial monetary terms, consisting of a gliding gold aristocracy, a 4% copper aristocracy and a $25 million early repayment, with last conditions anticipated by January 2026.

Previously this month, China’s Jiangxi Copper made a third improved $1.1 billion bid for Ecuador-focused SolGold (LON: SOLG), a 42.9% costs, as it breakthroughs the Cascabel copper-gold job described in a 2024 prefeasibility research as a 28-year procedure balancing 123,000 tpa of copper, 277,000 ozpa of gold and 794,000 ozpa of silver, with peak copper outcome of 216,000 tpa.

Australia’s Fortescue (ASX: FMG) has additionally agreed to buy Peru-focused Alta Copper for C$ 139 million to safeguard the Cañariaco job, which might generate 134,000 tpa of copper, 61,000 ozpa of gold and 1.2 Mozpa of silver in concentrate.

Llurimagua still deals with obstacles past possession, consisting of resistance from ecological teams that rescinded a 2014 ecological permit, pointing out infractions of nature legal rights and poor examination. Enami claims the giving in covers 4,829 hectares, with innovative boring restricted to a functional location of concerning 700 hectares.