Intag, Imbabura, Ecuador — August 2026 — Codelco, the Chilean state-owned mining giant and the world’s largest copper producer, has sold its entire Ecuadorian subsidiary and withdrawn completely from the country, a move analysts say signals a serious blow to Ecuador’s standing as a mining jurisdiction.
A Troubled Decade in Intag
Codelco entered Ecuador in 2012 at the invitation of then-President Rafael Correa’s government, tasked with helping develop the country’s fledgling mining sector. Its flagship project was a partnership with Ecuador’s state mining company, ENAMI EP, to explore the Llurimagua concession — a copper deposit located in the biodiverse cloud forests of the Intag region.
Intag’s communities have a long history of resisting large-scale copper mining, having previously driven out both a Japanese and a Canadian mining company from the same area. Codelco fared no better: after years of presence in Intag, a community-led lawsuit halted the project in 2023, with courts ruling that the exploration violated the constitutional Rights of Nature and communities’ right to be consulted.
Sale to Boroo Signals Full Exit of Codelco in Ecuador
Despite the setback, ENAMI EP retained ownership of the Llurimagua concession, and several mining companies have since expressed interest in acquiring rights to it. In late 2025, the Ecuadorian government announced plans to put Llurimagua up for a new bidding process, seeking to revive the stalled project. The winner of thaat bidding process will have to confront a wall of opposition and decades of resistance.
But in April 2026, according to legal filings in Ecuador’s Superintendencia de Compañías, it was revealed that Boroo, a Singapore-based mining corporation, had purchased EMSAEC, Codelco’s Ecuadorian subsidiary for USD 6.5 million dollars — acquiring rights to all of Codelco’s mining concessions in the country. Notably, Codelco chose to retain the exploration data and infrastructure specific to Llurimagua for itself, rather than transfer it with the rest of the sale. Boroo’s Ecuadorian subsidiary, Metallum99 will be in charge of mining activities in the Andean nation.
A Warning Sign for Ecuador
The significance of the move extends well beyond Intag. Codelco is not simply a company retreating from one difficult project — it is walking away from Ecuador altogether. For a state-owned mining company of Codelco’s scale, prestige, and technical expertise to conclude that Ecuador is not worth continued investment sends a stark signal to the global mining industry. Where Codelco goes, other investors often look — and its full exit raises serious questions about the viability of Ecuador as a destination for large-scale mining investment, particularly in regions where community opposition and legal protections for nature have proven capable of stopping even the best-resourced operators.
For more information: decointag@gmail.com
