Copper Futures (COPPER)

[baymare]

Chile’s Collahuasi copper mine halts shipments
Force majeure declared at world’s third largest copper mine

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/chile-halts-copper-shipments-from-collahuasi-mine-2010-12-21


By Jim Jelter, MarketWatch
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Chile’s giant Collahuasi copper mine, the world’s third largest, has halted shipments indefinitely following an accident at the mine’s ore shipping terminal.

News that the mine had declared force majeure Monday raced through the global metals market Tuesday, sending March copper futures to a record close of $4.28 a pound on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, a 1.7% advance from Monday’s settlement.

Force majeure is invoked when a company cannot meet its contractual obligations due to circumstances beyond its control, in this case its ability to ship copper ore concentrate.

Mine officials said the mishap had not affected Collahuasi’s actual mining operations, but that they are scrambling to find some other way to ship stockpiled copper concentrate from the facility after a shiploader at the Punta Patache port collapsed, reportedly killing three workers. They said they did not know how long shipments would be suspended. Separately, a port official told Reuters it could take at least a month to repair the damaged loading station.

Collahuasi mine is owned by Anglo American PLC /quotes/comstock/23s!e:aal (UK:AAL 3,260, +118.00, +3.76%) and Xstrata PLC /quotes/comstock/23s!a:xta (UK:XTA 1,504, +48.50, +3.33%) .

It was not clear how long it would take to resume copper concentrate shipments from the facility.