Santo Domingo, Chile

The Santo Domingo project is expected to be an open-pit coppercobalt mine with iron and gold production. It is owned by Capstone Copper and located in the Atacama region of Northern Chile, a well-established mining region, 35km north-east of Capstone Copper’s Mantoverde mine.

The project has a 19-year mine life and over the first seven years of the mine plan, production is expected to average 106,000 tonnes of copper and 3.7 million tonnes of iron concentrate.

Capstone Copper has also identified a meaningful cobalt opportunity that has the potential to turn Santo Domingo into one of the world’s largest and lowest cost cobalt producers. Cobalt production over the life of mine is forecast to total 10.4Mlbs per annum, the credits of which reduce the total mine’s C1 cash costs per pound of payable copper to $1.56 on a by-product basis

Copper and cobalt are commodities that will be central to the energy transition. Capstone Copper has extensive experience constructing copper mines in Chile and there will be considerable cost efficiencies to be had by integrating with the nearby, Capstone operated, Mantoverde mine. The project has strong sustainability credentials, for example using desalinated water from the Mantoverde desalination plant.

In July 2024, Capstone published an updated Feasibility Study Click here to view.

The release of this study marks a major step towards the creation of a world-class district in the Atacama region of Chile. Capstone has optimizsd the mine plan, updated the capital and operating cost estimates, and incorporated all experience gained throughout the engineering and construction of the nearby Mantoverde Development Project. Click here for more details.

Capstone continue to advance detailed engineering on the project and is targeting FID for H2 2025.