Chile produces almost no cobalt, the metal that stabilizes many electric vehicle batteries, but one company wants to revive a district that mined it more than a century ago. Chilean Cobalt Corp., through its subsidiary Baltum Minería SpA, signed a definitive option agreement to acquire new mining concessions in the San Juan district, in the Atacama Region, for a fixed price of US$28.3 million, Electrominería reported on November 6.
With the purchase, the company would consolidate almost all of its La Cobaltera project area and reach about 10,658 hectares of concessions. The final acquisition depends on the company exercising the option and making the contract payments. In parallel, the company is assessing recovering metals from the district's historical tailings, one of the project's most interesting angles from a sustainable mining standpoint.
View the data as a table
| Option price | US$28.3 million |
| Consolidated concessions | 10,658 ha |
| Cobalt-bearing veins identified | 12 km |
| Tailings project with Corfo | US$3.95 million |
La Cobaltera: where it is and how big it is
La Cobaltera lies about 48 km southeast of Huasco, in Huasco province, at 700 to 1,100 meters of elevation and about 700 km north of Santiago, according to Chilean Cobalt's 10-K annual report filed with the US SEC. To the northeast is El Cofre, about 15 km south of Freirina. The area's old mines were developed more than a hundred years ago and are not in working condition today.
| Area | Concession type | Hectares |
|---|---|---|
| La Cobaltera (current) | Exploitation | 3,007 |
| New concessions under the option | Exploitation | ~1,381 |
| Expanded La Cobaltera | Exploitation | ~4,388 |
| El Cofre | Exploitation | 3,370 |
| New concessions under the option | Exploration | ~2,900 |
| Consolidated total | ~10,658 |
Source: Chilean Cobalt Corp., via Electrominería (November 6, 2026). The total combines 7,758 hectares of exploitation and 2,900 of exploration concessions.
In 2018 and 2019 the company drilled 96 holes totaling 21,943 meters, 68 of them in the cobalt-bearing veins of Rosa Amelia. It identified about 12 km of cobalt veins and more than 20 km associated with copper. In November 2019, SRK Consulting prepared an initial resource estimate for Rosa Amelia under the Canadian NI 43-101 standard, although the 2025 10-K states that there are currently no mineral resource or reserve estimates in place for the property.
- 2018-201996 drill holes, 21,943 meters68 of them in the Rosa Amelia veins.
- November 2019SRK initial estimateNI 43-101 resources for Rosa Amelia; no current estimates today.
- June 2024EXIM letter of interestUp to US$317.4 million, non-binding.
- 6 January 2026Sustainable Cobalt projectBioleaching of mining waste with UNAB, Pucobre and ENAMI.
- 6 November 2026US$28.3 million optionNew concessions in the San Juan district.
Cobalt from tailings: the Corfo project
The most relevant part for sustainable mining lies in the waste. Chilean Cobalt is part of a consortium studying how to recover cobalt and copper from La Cobaltera's old mining waste piles through bioleaching, a process that uses microorganisms to dissolve metals. The project, called "Sustainable Cobalt", was announced on January 6, 2026 and is a semi-industrial validation of a biotechnological "green cobalt" process, according to the 10-K.
| Sustainable Cobalt project | Data |
|---|---|
| Partners | Universidad Andrés Bello, Pucobre, ENAMI and Chilean Cobalt |
| Total cost | US$3.95 million |
| Grant | US$3 million (Albemarle funds managed through Corfo) |
| Partners' contribution | US$950,000 |
| Duration | About three years |
| Goal | Validate at semi-industrial scale the recovery of cobalt and copper from mining waste |
Bioleaching is already used in Chilean copper mining, in heaps of low-grade ore irrigated with solutions in which bacteria speed up the dissolution of the metal. Applied to old waste, it allows processing material that is already on the surface, without opening new mines. The challenge is that historical tailings and waste dumps tend to have low grades and irregular composition, so the semi-industrial validation seeks to prove whether the process is stable and profitable at larger scale.
Source: Chilean Cobalt Corp., 10-K report for fiscal year 2025 filed with the SEC. Key data are still missing: tailings volumes, recoverable metal content and economic viability. The company itself warns that recovering this waste could make use of material already extracted and help rehabilitate legacy mining sites, but that depends on pending studies.
Why Chilean cobalt matters for batteries
The cobalt market is highly concentrated. The DR Congo produced 230,000 tonnes in 2025, 74% of the world total of 310,000, according to the USGS, as detailed in our ranking of the largest cobalt producers in the world. Chile does not appear in that table, although it had historical output precisely in Atacama districts.
Cobalt is used mainly in the cathodes of NMC (nickel, manganese and cobalt) and NCA lithium batteries, which dominate many longer-range electric cars, and in superalloys and tools. Lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries, which contain no cobalt, have gained ground in cars and stationary storage, but cobalt demand keeps growing with the total volume of batteries. That is why the United States and Europe are looking for suppliers outside the Congo, where production also faces scrutiny over artisanal mining.
La Cobaltera is not the only project targeting that metal in the region. Capstone Copper includes cobalt in its Santo Domingo plan, part of the more than US$3 billion in investments it announced in Chile. Chilean Cobalt, for its part, cites a non-binding letter of interest from the US EXIM bank, from June 2024, for a debt package of up to US$317.4 million, and estimates it will need about US$400 million to complete its plan.
Water, energy and La Cobaltera's challenges
In a valley hit by drought, water is a sensitive issue. The 10-K states that the company is "highly sensitive" to the social impact of water use and that it could source water from on-site wells, trucks or desalinated seawater, an option growing in northern mining, although with environmental challenges that the new desalination law leaves open. In 2025 the company adopted the IRMA and Digbee ESG frameworks and completed its first independent Digbee assessment in July 2025.
The company has also started using artificial intelligence with Mineral Forecast and MinersAI to combine historical records, geology, geophysics and exploration results, and refine its targets at La Cobaltera and El Cofre. Electrominería cautions that the 2018-2019 results are historical and that vein length alone does not prove economically extractable mineralization.
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See advertising formatsFrequently asked questions
What did Chilean Cobalt buy?
It signed a definitive option for US$28.3 million to acquire about 1,381 hectares of exploitation and 2,900 of exploration concessions in the San Juan district.
Where is La Cobaltera?
About 48 km southeast of Huasco, in Chile's Atacama Region.
How many hectares does the company hold?
About 10,658 hectares: 7,758 of exploitation and 2,900 of exploration.
Can cobalt be recovered from tailings?
That is what the Sustainable Cobalt consortium is studying, with bioleaching, over about three years. There are no data yet on volumes or recoverable metal.
Does Chile produce cobalt?
Not in significant quantities today. The USGS records no Chilean output in 2025; the DR Congo accounts for 74% of the world total.
