Los Bronces, perched 3,500 meters high up in the Andes near Santiago, produced 416,300 tons of copper last year, roughly 7% Chile’s overall output.
Mining professionals at Anglo American’s (LON:AAL) Los Bronces copper mine in central Chile began a strike Friday after 45 days of negotiations aimed to better conditions for supervisors came to a standstill.
This is the first time mining engineers, geologists and other highly educated staffs go on a strike at a privately owned mine in Chile, local UCV Radio reports (in Spanish).
Union leader Ivan Mlynarz, geologist and former student leader at the University of Chile, slammed Anglo’s local management accusing them of “inflexible” and unwilling to extend the dialogue any further.
The strike, approved by 96% of the union members, is estimated to cause Anglo American $6 million of lost revenue a day.
Los Bronces, perched 3,500 meters high up in the Andes near Santiago, produced 416,300 tons of copper last year, roughly 7% the South American nation’s overall output.
Anglo owns 50.1% of the operation. Chilean state miner Codelco and Japanese trading houses Mitsui & Co. and Mitsubishi Corp. also have stakes in the complex.
