Codelco Workers May Have Helped Steal $80 Million Worth of Copper

Mining.com reported that Chilean miner Codelco is currently being represented by the country’s State Defense Council in a suit against 22 people who purportedly robbed the mine of millions of dollars worth of copper.

The thieves were supposedly in cahoots with Ingecom employees contracted by Coldeco and were able to pass checkpoints after switching high-grade copper concentrate for lower-grade metal.

As quoted in the publication:

According to La Tercera (in Spanish)copper concentrate was regularly stolen from the state-owned firm by a transport company that would drive trucks from the Escondida operation to an abandoned mine, break locks and change the material for low-grade copper ore, before arriving to destination, at El Salvador division.

Click here to read the full Mining.com article.