Monday, 31 August 2015 18:06
SANTIAGO: Chile, the world’s No. 1 copper producer, posted a 2.5 percent decrease in output in July versus a year earlier due to maintenance work at some processing plants, lower mineral ore grades and a strike at state-owned miner Codelco, the government said on Monday. Production slipped to 455,083 tonnes of copper in July.
Although new mines are helping to boost output, Chile, which produces one-third of the world’s copper, is struggling with dwindling ore grades in many of its aging deposits.
Labor disputes are also taking a toll. A three-week strike last month by contractor workers at Codelco hit production by a total of 17,000 tonnes, the company said last week.
Nonetheless, output has risen year to date. Chile produced 3.39 million tonnes of copper between January and July, a 1.7 percent increase from the same period a year earlier.
Production of molybdenum, a metal used to harden steel, jumped 17.2 percent in July to 4,605 tonnes.
Between January and July, output of molybdenum totaled 28,136 tonnes, up 2.0 percent from a year ago.
