The First Environmental Tribunal of Chile has rejected the judicial challenge filed against the Chilean Committee of Ministers’ environmental approval of Halo Minerals’ (AIM:HALO) Playa Verde Project.
The judgement dismissed all claims advanced by the claimant and upheld the October 2025 decision granting a favourable environmental qualification for Playa Verde.
On 28 November 2025, Manuel Cortés Alfaro began proceedings before the First Environmental Tribunal challenging the approval. The matter was heard in April 2026, and the tribunal has now delivered its ruling. The decision focused primarily on allegations concerning potential public health impacts arising from historical tailings material and return sands associated with the development project.
Halo Minerals says the tribunal confirmed that the health risk assessment did not constitute a substantial modification requiring a new public consultation process, and the company’s voluntary environmental commitment to reduce arsenic concentration was legally valid and environmentally appropriate.
What this means for Halo
The company believes the judgment represents a milestone, derisking the development of Playa Verde and providing judicial validation of the environmental approval process undertaken over numerous years.
Playa Verde is intended to recover copper from historical tailings deposited on Playa Grande while reducing arsenic concentrations in the material returned to the beach. The aim is to return the area to the community in a cleaner condition so it can again be used for recreation and, over time, fishing after decades of historical tailings deposition.
CEO Andrew Dennan says the judgement recognised that Playa Verde will improve environmental conditions within the project area.
“We look forward to progressing the development of Playa Verde,” Dennan says.
The company continues to make progress across various key technical and permitting workstreams at Playa Verde. In conjunction with BIOS Mining & Infrastructure, Halo is advancing the optimisation program and refinement of project economics, with a focus on updating capital and operational expenditures estimates to Bankable Feasibility Study (BFS)-standard.
Updated BFS-level project economics are expected to be completed in the coming weeks. A final investment decision is also targeted for completion by the end of 2026.
Halo is also engaging with potential industrial capital partners in relation to project funding and expects those discussions to continue during H2 2026.
Playa Verde’s initial mineable resources and reserves total 34.2 million tonnes to produce 60,329 tonnes of refined copper. The mine plan is based on dredging and processing 5 million tonnes annually, with an overall metallurgical recovery of 72%.
Halo Minerals is focused on producing key strategic and battery metals through the reprocessing of low-risk, metal-rich, surface-accumulated legacy mining waste projects, with a particular focus on copper.
Write to Aaliyah Rogan at Mining.com.au
Images: Halo Minerals
