Copper market’s biggest whale fuels speculation of a major shift
The world’s single biggest buyer of copper, State Grid Corp. of China, has slowed its purchases of copper wire this year.
Collahuasi, the third largest copper mine in the world, resumed operations this morning after a snowstorm halted production on Sunday, publishes online news outlet Terra.cl
The mine’s copper processing facilities, including the concentrator plant, continued to operate normally through the storm so output wasn’t reduced, according to the company spokeswoman quoted by Terra.cl
Despite it is summer now in the Southern hemisphere, Chile, Peru, Bolivia and Argentina’s arid northern regions are occasionally hit by rain and snow storms due to a phenomenon known as the “Bolivian winter” or the “Altiplano winter.”
Collahuasi is located in northern Chile 4,800 metres above sea level in the Andes surrounded by the barren Atacama Desert. The mine is 44%-owned by Xstrata PLC in joint venture with Anglo American (44%) and a Japanese consortium (12%) comprising Japan Collahuasi Resources BV, Mitsui & Co. Ltd., Nippon Mining & Metals Co. Ltd. and Mitsui Mining & Smelting Co. Ltd. The operating company is Cia. Minera Doña Ines de Collahuasi.
