Copper

The largest union at Chile's Escondida copper mine has voted to "indefinitely" extend a strike at the mine, which is controlled by BHP Billiton. Members of the 2350-strong Escondida Mine Workers Union No 1 "unanimously voted" to extend the work stoppage, which began on Thursday night and was initially planned to end 24 hours later at 8pm on Friday, union leader Jose Vidal said.

The largest union at Chile's Escondida copper mine voted to "indefinitely" extend a strike at the mine, which is controlled by global diversified miner BHP Billiton Ltd. (BHP, BHP.AU), union leader Jose Vidal said Friday. Members of 2,350-strong Escondida Mine Workers Union No. 1 "unanimously voted" to extend the work stoppage, which began Thursday night and was initially slated to end 24 hours later at 8 p.m. EDT on Friday, Vidal told Dow Jones Newswires.

David Knox, Santos chief executive, says the expected skills shortage has not yet affected his company. Picture: Calum Robertson Source: News Limited SANTOS chief executive David Knox, whose company is building one of the three $15 billion-plus coal-seam

Neves Corvo, Ludin Mining's copper-zinc mine located in Portugal, will produce 4,000 tonnes less copper and 19,000 tonnes less of zinc in 2011. The cash cost of production at the mine will also climb from $1.40 to $1.65. Neves Corvo, which accounts for most of Lundin's copper output, was expected to produce 76,000 tonnes of copper and 25,000 tonnes of zinc. The outlook has now fallen to 72,000 tonnes of copper and 6,000 tonnes of zinc. However, zinc production at the company's Irish mine, Galmoy, was expected to rise from 17,000 tonnes to 28,000 tonnes.

Nautilus Minerals' (TSX:NUS)(AIM:NUS) Tongan subsidiary, Tonga Offshore Mining Ltd. ("TOML"), has become one of the first private sector organizations to be granted exploration licences in the highly prospective Clarion Clipperton Zone ("CCZ") of the Eastern Pacific. As a result of exploration conducted in the 1980s, the CCZ is known to host significant deposits of polymetallic nodules, which are golf ball sized nuggets, rich in copper, nickel, manganese and cobalt, lying on the seafloor in water depths starting at 4500 metres.

Chilean President Sebastian Pinera said Thursday the country's copper giant Codelco will remain state-owned in a bid to ease fears that the company will be privatized. Codelco, the world's largest copper-producing company, "belongs to all Chileans," and any attempt to privatize it was to be ruled out, Pinera said.

Workers at BHP Billiton Ltd. (BHP)’s Escondida copper mine, the world’s biggest, began striking as coal miners at the company’s Australian operations prepared to escalate industrial action. The strike by all union members at the northern Chilean mine began at 8 p.m. New York time yesterday with the changing of a shift and will run through to 8 p.m. today, which may lead to about 3,000 metric tons of lost copper production, union leader Jose Vidal said by telephone. Image of BHP's Escondida mine is by BHP Billiton.

Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. is studying further expansion of mining and milling operations at Morenci, the company said today as it announced that its second-quarter profit doubled.

Copper futures retreated Thursday, snapping Wednesday’s rally to a three-month high, as negative sentiment over China’s economic future outweighed better-than-expected US manufacturing data.