Colombia's Copper Ore Potential Emerges

According to the Mining Journal, insights from a conference held in Medellín, the capital of Colombia, indicate that the country holds significant copper exploration potential and could potentially become a copper-producing nation, alleviating global shortages of copper needed for energy transition and other purposes.

"The world requires an annual increase of 1 million mt of copper supply, but currently, only 250,000 mt of capacity is under construction. Over the past six years, only six mines have entered construction, including Quellaveco in Peru, Kamoa-Kakula in the DRC, Sentinel in Zambia, Mirador in Ecuador, and Petaquilla (also known as Cobre Panama) in Panama," said Edwin Naranjo, Vice President of Exploration at Copper Giant Resources (CGR).

With support from mining entrepreneur Frank Guistra, CGR is exploring the Mocoa copper mine in Putumayo Province. The mine has an inferred ore resource of 636 million mt with a copper equivalent grade of 0.45%, containing 2.1 million mt of copper and 511 million pounds of molybdenum. B2Gold was the previous owner of the mine.

Naranjo stated that the copper mining industry is increasingly searching for deposits that are more challenging to explore. "The world needs giant deposits, specifically those with 2 billion mt of ore, a copper grade of 0.5%, and the potential to produce 500,000 mt of copper annually," he said.

Although Mocoa does not yet reach that scale, Naranjo noted its characteristics are very attractive.

"We are close to the Pan-American Highway, airports, ports, and other infrastructure. The only copper mineral present is chalcopyrite, with no harmful elements, and molybdenite occurs as free particles. This allows us to produce concentrates with low impurities and high recovery rates, achieving grades of 92% for copper and 97% for molybdenum," he said.

Naranjo mentioned, "The formation of this mine took 10 million years." The Mocoa mineralizing system was active for 10 million years, with eight mineralization episodes identified, which is also why its grade is high.

The migration of mineralizing fluids requires a very long time. To date, Mocoa is the only known Jurassic porphyry with a 10-million-year mineralization cycle, Naranjo said.

Copper Giant has resumed drilling at Mocoa, with a program of 9 holes totaling 14,000 meters underway. The company plans to update the resource estimate and preliminary economic assessment in Q3 2026.

Quebradona

A copper mine advancing more rapidly is the Quebradona project by AngloGold Ashanti in Antioquia Province. The project, currently in the feasibility study stage, is expected to submit an environmental impact assessment report in 2027. The previous application was rejected, and the company subsequently resubmitted its application. In 2025, the company revised the feasibility study report.

If approved, Quebradona will become Colombia's largest metal mining project. Based on drilling results from 316 holes totaling 85,000 meters, the project is estimated to have ore resources of 620 million mt with a copper grade of 0.69%, a gold grade of 0.35 g/mt, equating to a copper metal content of 4.25 million mt and 7 million ounces of gold.

Project manager Carlos Mejia stated, "The mine is planned to extract one level per year, mining 124 million mt of ore with a copper grade of 1.2%, gold 0.65 g/mt, and silver 6.98 g/mt. Initially, there will be 21 sublevels, and the open stoping method will be used."

Mejia mentioned that the project is a blind ore discovery, with the main orebody located 400 meters below the surface. "There is significant exploration potential between depths of 450 meters and 800 meters. Although the orebody is about 7 km from the town of Jericó, the company plans to drive two tunnels toward it near the Cauca River at a lower elevation, which is also where the processing plant and several other facilities are located." The nearby cliff has a height difference of up to 1,000 meters.

Cobrasco Project

Earlier this year, through the acquisition of Rugby Mining, Andina Copper became Colombia's latest copper miner. This acquisition gave the company control of the Cobrasco project in the Chocó Department of western Colombia, where what Narranjo calls a giant copper deposit may be found.

One of the first tasks for the company is to continue drilling the third hole, which Rugby started a few years ago but suspended for the Christmas holidays and later could not raise funds to resume drilling. Rugby's drilling intersected 144.6 meters of ore with a copper grade of 0.69% and molybdenum 0.0155%.

Wilson Escobar, Vice President of Exploration at Andina Copper, said, "We will continue drilling to a depth of 1,300 meters."

Photos presented by Escobar showed that the ore minerals are mainly bornite (68%), with the remainder being chalcopyrite.

Freeport-McMoRan

It is exciting that the company came to Colombia in 2024 and signed an agreement with MAX Resource to jointly explore sedimentary copper deposits in the Cesar and La Guajira departments. Although Wol Schuh, Vice President of Latin American Exploration at Freeport, said it is too early to discuss the project named Sierra Azul, he described sedimentary copper deposits and analyzed why they are attractive.

Currently, sedimentary copper deposits account for about 21% of the world's copper production, while porphyry deposits account for 65%. A sedimentary copper belt stretches for more than 2,000 kilometers from Colombia through Peru to Argentina.

"Sedimentary copper deposits often have higher grades than porphyry deposits," Schuh believes.

"Colombia's advantage is that the departments of Cesar and La Guajira are more accessible compared to the jungles in other parts of Ecuador and Peru."