India's Adani Group has agreed to bankroll exploration at a copper prospect owned by Chile's state miner Codelco, a step toward securing ore for the giant smelter it is building on the coast of Gujarat. Kutch Copper Limited, a subsidiary of Adani Enterprises, signed a memorandum of understanding with Codelco that sets out the key commercial terms for an exploration alliance at the Kaburkaala project, the two companies said in a statement dated Nov. 11.

For investors in Asia, the deal is a small but telling move in a broader contest. Smelters in India, China and elsewhere in the region depend on imported copper concentrate, and owning a stake in mine supply is one of the few ways to reduce that exposure. Adani is trying to do from scratch what Japanese trading houses and Chinese miners have done for decades: buy into the rock in South America.

What Adani and Codelco signed

Kaburkaala sits in the Calama mining district of the Antofagasta Region in northern Chile, the heart of the country's copper belt. Under the proposed alliance, Adani would supply the capital, technology and large-scale project execution, while Codelco would contribute its geological knowledge of the area and its international mining experience, according to Codelco's statement.

Neither company disclosed how much Adani would spend, what share of the project it could earn, or a timetable for drilling. The document is a memorandum of understanding, not a final contract, and the statement described the eventual partnership in conditional terms.

The memorandum was signed in London during LME Week, the industry's annual gathering around the London Metal Exchange, in the presence of Codelco board chairman Bernardo Fontaine, Kutch Copper director Jeet Adani and Vinay Prakash, chief executive of Adani Natural Resources, Codelco said.

The agreement grows out of an earlier memorandum the two companies signed in 2025. Under that deal, technical teams from both sides reviewed a portfolio of Codelco copper projects through a due diligence process that included site visits in Chile, the state miner said. Adani then picked Kaburkaala and submitted a proposal to advance exploration there.

Fontaine said the process showed Codelco can attract world-class partners and create value from its exploration portfolio while protecting the long-term interests of the company and the Chilean state. Jeet Adani called the alliance "a long-term investment in India's future," according to Mining Technology, and said secure access to copper would support Indian industries from renewable energy to infrastructure and technology.

Why Adani wants Chilean copper

Adani's interest is tied to Mundra, the port town in Gujarat where Kutch Copper is developing what Codelco's statement describes as one of the world's largest single-location custom copper smelter complexes. A custom smelter buys concentrate from mines it does not own, which leaves it exposed to the fees miners pay for processing and to the availability of ore on the open market.

Adani said the partnership could link exploration resources in Chile with its Mundra smelter and give it long-term access to a metal it sees as central to electrification, Mining Technology reported. The publication also said the move fits wider efforts by India and Chile to cooperate on critical minerals.

The time frame is long. Exploration-stage projects can take many years to move through drilling, resource estimates, permits and construction, and many never become mines. Any ore from Kaburkaala would be a distant addition to Mundra's supply rather than a near-term fix. For now, the smelter will keep competing for concentrate with Chinese buyers, whose imports of copper concentrate fell 11% in October.

Codelco's partnership push

For Codelco, the deal is the second exploration partnership with a foreign miner in a matter of weeks. On Oct. 26, the state company said it had signed an exploration contract with BHP for the Anillo project, also in the Antofagasta Region. Under that agreement BHP could invest up to $40 million in reconnaissance, geophysical and geological studies and drilling on a 24,000-hectare property that is at an early stage of exploration.

The Anillo contract was signed during the same LME Week, after Codelco completed the approvals Chilean law requires before a partner can acquire rights to Codelco mining properties that are not part of deposits in operation. Those steps included a supreme decree, review by the national comptroller and publication in the official gazette, Codelco said. BHP and Codelco had first announced the Anillo arrangement in May 2025.

Codelco has said these partnerships are part of a strategy to extract value from a portfolio of mining properties covering 2.3 million hectares by bringing in outside capital, technology and management. In the Adani statement it added that such alliances share risk and speed up projects with development potential. Partners such as Adani and BHP pay for early exploration under these arrangements.

The Kaburkaala agreement still needs to be turned into a binding exploration contract, and if it follows the Anillo path, that will require the same legal approvals in Santiago. Chile's copper sector has been under pressure on the supply side, with October copper exports falling. The next marker for investors is whether Adani Enterprises discloses a budget or an earn-in stake once a definitive contract is signed.