Codelco–Neuvol mining tyre REP deal: logistics and design lessons for operators
Reviewed by Tom Sullivan

First reported on International Mining – News
30 Second Briefing
Codelco has signed an agreement with Neuvol, Chile’s first collective management system for used and end-of-life tyres, to comply with the country’s Extended Producer Responsibility (REP) Law and embed circular-economy practices in its large mining tyre stream. The alliance’s first milestone is the processing of Codelco’s mining tyres through Neuvol’s system, shifting material from on-site stockpiles and potential landfill towards recovery routes such as granulation, pyrolysis or co-processing. For mine operators, the deal signals growing regulatory pressure to design haulage tyre logistics, storage yards and contracts around traceable collection and certified recycling capacity.
Technical Brief
- Agreement explicitly covers both used tyres (UT) and end-of-life tyres (ELTs) from Codelco operations.
Our Take
Codelco’s REP Law tyre move in Chile sits alongside its long-life copper plans, such as the Ministro Hales extension to 2054, signalling that waste and closure liabilities are being baked into multi-decade mine planning rather than treated as end-of-life issues.
In our database, Codelco increasingly appears in sustainability-linked items ranging from circular-economy R&D with Corfo on lithium and rare earth recovery to this tyre compliance step, suggesting the state miner is positioning environmental performance as a lever to defend its role in Chile’s copper and future battery-materials sector.
With Chile hosting $14.8 billion of copper projects targeting 2026 milestones and Codelco involved in several, early compliance with REP obligations could become a de facto standard for new or expanded operations, potentially raising the bar for other operators in the country.
Prepared by collating external sources, AI-assisted tools, and Geomechanics.io’s proprietary mining database, then reviewed for technical accuracy & edited by our geotechnical team.
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