Treasury requests auction of Antofagasta Minerals concessions in Alto del Carmen

The 1st Court of Letters of Vallenar set for Monday, December 14, 2026, at 10:00 AM, the auction of mining concessions with unpaid patents located in the commune of Alto del Carmen, in case Rol C-208-2026, captioned “Tesorería/ Antofagasta Minerals S.A.”. The resolution is published in the Official Mining Bulletin no. 44,578, dated Tuesday, October 20, 2026, with official reference CVE 2885341.

The procedure is governed by Article 147 of Law 18,248, which contains the Mining Code, a regulation that obligates the General Treasury of the Republic to send the lists of delinquent debtors to the court so that the date and time of the auction may be set. The publication of the notices was ordered on two different days, in accordance with Articles 147 and 238 of the same legal body and Articles 49, 50, and 51 of its regulations.

The case and the amounts owed

The filing was signed by Ingrid Álvarez Caballero, acting provincial treasurer of Huasco-Vallenar, and is sponsored by attorney Paola Guevara Ibáñez, representing the Treasury of Chile. The defendant is Antofagasta Minerals S.A. (RUT 93.920.000-2) “and others,” and the billed period corresponds to the year 2026, between March 1, 2026, and February 28, 2027.

There are two accompanying lists:

• Folio 1452807, for exploration concessions, with 101 individualized claims.
• Folio 1452545, for exploitation concessions, with 159 individualized claims.

The amounts owed per claim range from 71,506 pesos (1 UTM) to 8,580,720 pesos (120 UTM), according to the detail signed by the provincial treasurer on June 22, 2026. Among the included holders are Antofagasta Minerals S.A. (concessions ADAMAR A1 to ADAMAR A5), Codelco Chile, Inversiones Chaitén SpA, Compañía Minera Nevada SpA, FQM Exploration Chile S.A., Mogotes Metals Chile SpA, Exploraciones Huasco SpA, SCM El Morro, Inversiones Barrick Conosur Ltda., and Minera Mirasol Chile Limitada.

Date, guarantee, and auction rules

The Treasury had proposed December 12, 2026, at 10:00 AM; the court, through a resolution dated July 7, 2026, issued by presiding judge María Catalina López Werner, finally set Monday, December 14, 2026, at the same time. The corrected terms were approved on July 13, 2026, by the acting secretary Criss Belén Rozas Tapia.

The main conditions of the auction are:

• Guarantee equivalent to the amount owed in UTM, deposited into the court’s current account at BancoEstado No. 12300032786, via payment slip or, exceptionally, a cashier’s check.
• Express prohibition of electronic transfers to the court’s account.
• Proof of guarantee sent by email to JL1_vallenar@pjud.cl by 12:00 PM the day before the hearing.
• Auction in a single lot for each Rol number, with a minimum equal to the value of the overdue patents, calculated according to the UTM of the month of the auction.
• Payment of the price within eight days from the auction; otherwise, the bond shall be forfeited and the property shall be auctioned again in accordance with Article 152 of the Mining Code.
• Exclusion of bidders with a current registration in the Registry of Child Support Debtors under Law 21.389.

Excluded concessions and removal from auction

At the request of the executing party, the court excluded “for now” two claims due to lack of data: LA GRINGA 1-7 (Rol 03304-0078-1), which lacked registration records, and CUCARACHA 1-2 (Rol 03304-1615-2), with no determined location. The Treasury explained that it had requested the information from Sernageomin and was still awaiting a response.

The owner of a concession cannot submit bids, but retains the power to exclude it from the auction until the moment of the sale by paying double the amount owed. If no interested parties appear, the judge will declare the land as “terreno franco” (free land) and order the cancellation of the registrations at the Mining Conservator.

The auction affects large-scale holders alongside small concessionaires in the province of Huasco, in a year where the collection of unpaid mining patents has resulted in dozens of publications in the Official Mining Bulletin. The auction on December 14 will determine whether the claims of Antofagasta Minerals S.A. and the rest of the debtors change hands or return to the fiscal estate as free land.

Source: Official Mining Bulletin, no. 44,578, Tuesday, October 20, 2026, section VII, pp. 1-13 (official reference: CVE 2885341).