Friends in faraway places: getting to know Liebherr Chile

What makes the Chilean mining industry different from other industries?

A defining factor of Chilean mining is that it isn’t just important to Chileans – it’s vital for the world. Our vast copper and lithium reserves make us a critical player for global energy, electromobility and technology chains. At the same time, being the world’s top copper producer means that the commodity represents nearly 88% of our mining exports as well as almost two-thirds of our exports overall. That being said, our copper industry is incredibly concentrated. Five companies are responsible for about 70% of our copper production, which means few large-scale customers making complex purchasing decisions.

Chilean mine sites are also uniquely intense within the industry. Operations are often in the desert, at geographical height, with low water availability, at long logistical distances and have lower grade deposits. As such, any mining equipment used in these environments needs to be incredibly robust and reliable. This makes Chilean mines the perfect place to test new machines and technologies: if it works here, it will likely work anywhere. In fact, operations in Chile are often the first to experience new products. In recent years, Chile has been a test bed for autonomous trucks, remote operations, AI, desalination, electrification and digital mining.

We’re also seeing a rapid shift towards using desalinated seawater in mining operations throughout Chile rather than relying on inland resources. The Chilean Copper Commission, or COCHILCO, has predicted that demand for water from mining operations will increase from 18.5 m³/s in 2024 to 20.6 m³/s in 2034, which would put even more pressure on Chile’s water resources. However, due to the increased investment and development of desalination projects, recent COCHILCO figures also suggest that about 68% of all water used in Chilean mining by 2034 will be seawater – a 26.9% increase compared to 2024 levels.

As Chile is one of the longest nations in the world, providing timely support to customers across the country must be challenging. How does Liebherr Chile overcome this?

A big part of our ability to provide effective support to our customers across Chile is our operational base in La Negra, near the Antofagasta mining region in the northern part of the country. Antofagasta is Chile’s main mining region, home to the majority of our copper, lithium and nitrate mines. Since its establishment in 2012, this service centre has become our strategic hub, where skilled groups of engineers and technicians are on hand to meet the demands of key mining operations. The centre spans 40,000 square metres, with a built area of 4,200 square metres that includes administrative offices, a remanufacturing centre and warehouses for storage of critical spare parts and components.

How has the Chilean mining landscape changed since you first started at Liebherr Chile – what are the main drivers for industry and how is Liebherr Chile responding to these?

Over the past four years, the Chilean mining industry has undergone one of its most significant transformations in decades. While productivity and operational reliability remain fundamental priorities, today's mining companies are increasingly driven by decarbonisation, digitalisation, automation, energy efficiency and workforce safety. This evolution is taking place against a more complex global backdrop. Growing demand for copper driven by the energy transition, increasing geopolitical competition for critical minerals, supply chain disruptions, stricter environmental expectations and declining ore grades have all reshaped investment priorities across the industry.

As a result, customers are no longer evaluating equipment solely on payload or mechanical performance. They increasingly seek integrated solutions that improve productivity, reduce emissions, optimise life cycle costs and support long-term operational resilience. Liebherr Chile, along with Liebherr’s entire mining product segment, has evolved to meet these changing demands. And as part of that evolution, our team has played important roles in some exciting projects over the past few years. One such project was the commissioning of Chile’s first fully operational trolley line at Collahuasi copper mine. Another was the first deployment of Liebherr’s teleoperations system, LiReCon, to a mining operation. Delivering these projects highlights how our team can adapt quickly to changing mining technologies and successfully deliver these to our customers.

Tell us more about the Collahuasi trolley project – it sounds exciting!

The Collahuasi project was particularly significant for us, and for Liebherr Mining more broadly, as Liebherr delivered the complete trolley solution, rather than just supplying individual components. This included retrofitting the mine's existing T 284 ultra-class haul trucks to become trolley compatible, engineering and supplying the trolley infrastructure, integrating the electrical power system, commissioning the installation and training mining personnel. The trolley line itself was built to support an initial fleet of four trolley-compatible T 284 trucks at more than 4,500 metres above sea level in an area where winds can reach over 100 kilometres per hour.

Beyond the trolley line itself, this project showed us what we can do when our customers provide us with a challenge. Drawing on the expertise of our own team as well as from Collahuasi and the wider Liebherr community is what allowed us to deliver such a complex project while maintaining operational reliability. Plus, the success of this project gave us valuable operational experience that we can bring to future mine electrification projects.

Is there a particular growth market that you identify for Liebherr Chile in the near future? How is Liebherr Chile well positioned within this market?

I see the strongest near-term growth opportunity in Chile’s large-scale copper mining sector, particularly in ultra-class haulage, fleet electrification and life cycle services. Chile has a substantial pipeline of copper expansions, replacement projects and mine-life extensions. We’ve also started to see that sales of hydraulic excavators are gaining more momentum, which is exciting as the primary loading tool in the copper industry has traditionally been rope shovels.

Combined, these conditions within the Chile’s copper industry give us the opportunity to grow the installed base of ultra-class trucks and large excavators and to expand recurring aftermarket business through parts, component rebuilds, maintenance agreements, upgrades and performance-based services. Liebherr Chile is well positioned to meet this demand because we can offer more than individual machines. Our portfolio combines high-capacity trucks with trolley technology, hydraulic excavators, dozers and future digital and autonomous solutions.

Published October 2026