Antofagasta (LON: ANTO) Critical Minerals Exposure

Antofagasta is a London-listed copper miner whose operations are all in Chile, where it ranks among the country's largest private producers. Controlled by the Luksic family, the group also produces molybdenum, gold and silver as by-products, and it runs a transport business in the north of the country. Its growth plans centre on expanding the mines it already owns rather than buying new ones.

Copper is Antofagasta's critical mineral, produced as both concentrate and cathode at its Chilean mines. Molybdenum, gold and silver come out of the same ore, yet copper is what drives the business. Its metal ends up in the wiring, motors and transformers behind electrification, from power grids to electric vehicles and data centres.

All of Antofagasta's mines are in Chile: Los Pelambres in the Coquimbo region, together with Centinela and Antucoya in the Antofagasta region. Its transport division runs rail and road services carrying cargo between the Atacama mining region and the coast.