El Salvador lawmakers overturn mining ban Bukele called absurd
El Salvador became the first country in the world to ban all forms of metals mining in 2017.
About 2,500 workers at BHP Billiton’s Escondida mine in Chile, the world’s biggest copper operation, voted late Tuesday to reject a company wage offer and opted instead to go on strike.
The walk out could begin as early as Friday, a union representative told Diario Financiero (in Spanish), but it’d likely be deferred for a five-day government mediation to attempt a resolution.
Miners have accused BHP, which holds a 57% stake in the mine, of offering no pay increase, seeking to cut bonuses, and removing top-up payments for those who take voluntary redundancy, as well as changing shift hours.
Escondida is forecast to produce 1.1 million tonnes of copper in 2017, about 5% of the world’s total.
The mine, located in the copper-rich Antofagasta region, in northern Chile, supports just over 10,000 full-time jobs and it is forecast to produce about 1.1 million tonnes of in the 12 months to June 30, according BHP figures. That is equivalent to about 5% of the world’s total copper production.
Prices for the red metal have been testing $6,000 a tonne this week, an almost 18-month high, on the possibility of such supply disruption. But the metal fell 0.9% on the London Metal Exchange Wednesday to $5,935.50 a tonne around noon, having earlier touched a two-month peak of $6,007.
Chile produces 28% of the world’s copper and the country’s output dropped by 3.9% in 2016, mainly due to lower production at Escondida and Anglo American Sur.
Production in the South American nation is expected to grow by 4.3% according to the Chilean government forecaster adding that Escondida would account for almost all of the expected increased output.
BHP, already the world’s second-biggest listed copper miner, decided last year to raise its annual exploration spending by 29%, allocating nearly all its $900 million budget to finding new copper and oil deposits. The mining giant is committed to make of those two commodities the pillars of its future growth.
