Not Taseko Mines

[mhlld]

Many potential strikes in Peru and Chile, recent article.


Codelco's Strikers Resume Talks Without New Offer (Update5)
Oct. 12 (Bloomberg) -- Codelco, the world's biggest copper producer, resumed negotiations today with supervisors at a division in northern Chile that went on strike last week over benefits.

Union leaders and management met this afternoon for the first time since the strike began at the company's northern division on Oct. 8, though Codelco didn't make a new offer, said Mario Sepulveda, a spokesman for the union. Jaime Andrade, a spokesman for the division, confirmed the meeting.

``We didn't have concrete progress,'' Sepulveda said, in telephone interview. He expects the two sides to meet tomorrow, though no meeting is now scheduled.

Andrade said prior to the meeting that the company won't make a new offer and that the protest hasn't reduced mining at the division. The union wants Santiago-based Codelco to increase housing benefits as the company's profits surge following a jump in copper prices to 15-year highs.

Copper futures for December delivery fell 2.05 cents, or 1.4 percent, to $1.448 cents a pound on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. Futures prices have jumped 62 percent in 12 months on greater demand in the U.S. and China, the biggest users of the metal.

Adjustment

Codelco last week shut a smelter at the division because of the strike, beginning as much as 15 days of maintenance that had been scheduled for December, Andrade said.

The company is shipping copper to another division for smelting, and using stockpiles of processed copper to feed a plant that produces cathodes, or almost pure copper, Andrade said in a telephone interview. Miners operate most machinery at the division, rather than the union's members, who include engineers, doctors and managers.

Sepulveda said stockpiles feeding the refinery will run out, making the company sell copper as concentrate, which is partly copper, rather than as pure copper, which commands a higher price.

The northern division's two mines, Radomiro Tomic and Chuquicamata, accounted for 53 percent of production at Codelco in the first half of the year. Codelco said this year that its production will rise 14 percent in 2004 to 1.778 million metric tons.



To contact the reporter on this story:
Heather Walsh in Santiago,
Chile [e-mail]

To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Laura Zelenko at [e-mail]

Last Updated: October 12, 2004 16:26 EDT

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