Canada’s Lundin Mining (TSX: LUN) has recently released an updated resource estimate report for the Filo del Sol project, located in Chile’s Atacama region. The report confirms the deposit’s potential to become one of the world’s largest copper, gold, and silver resources, marking the largest copper discovery in the past three decades.
This discovery comes at a time when global energy transitions are driving a surge in copper demand, with widespread expectations of sustained supply shortages in the copper market.
For the first time, the assessment has included the high-grade sulphide core resources, reporting a total measured and indicated resource of 606 million tonnes at a copper-equivalent grade of 1.14%, containing 4.5 million tonnes of copper, 9.6 million ounces of gold, and 259 million ounces of silver. The oxide resource estimate was also updated to 434 million tonnes, with a copper grade of 0.34% (1.5 million tonnes of copper), a gold grade of 0.28 g/t (3.9 million ounces of gold), and a silver grade of 2.5 g/t (35 million ounces of silver).
Jack Lundin, President and CEO of Lundin Mining, described the project as “one of the most significant greenfield discoveries in the last 30 years,” emphasizing its potential to be developed into a world-class deposit capable of supporting a globally ranked mining complex. The project is now being operated by the Vicuña joint venture, co-owned 50/50 by Lundin Mining and BHP.
The joint venture also includes the Josemaría project in San Juan, Argentina. The two neighboring projects are slated to be integrated into a single mining complex to optimize costs.According to the latest figures, the Josemaría project has a measured and indicated resource of 196 million tonnes at a copper-equivalent grade of 0.73%, containing 978,000 tonnes of copper, 2.4 million ounces of gold, and 11 million ounces of silver.
Combined with the resources from the Filo del Sol project, the Vicuña joint venture project will rank among the highest-grade and largest undeveloped open-pit copper deposits in the world, while also being a global leader in gold and silver resources.
Compared to previous estimates, the total measured and indicated resources have grown by over 29%, with inferred resources increasing by a remarkable 7.5 times. The company pointed out that the Filo del Sol mineralized zone, which has so far only been delineated over a 10-square-kilometer area, still holds significant expansion potential.An integrated technical report for the projects is scheduled for completion in the first quarter of 2026, which will lay the foundation for the combined development plan.
