Two-week Strike at Chuquicamata Mine Trims Codelco's Revenues by $35 Million

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): The 14-day strike at Codelco’s Chuquicamata mine in northern Chile came to an end after 75% of the mine workers belonging to the three main unions voting in favor of the company’s latest offer for a collective contract. The workers resumed duty Friday morning.

The company agreed to three of the four primary demands put forward by the unions. Also, it party agreed on the fourth demand asking for same wages and benefits for existing and new workers.

However, various agencies and analysts have predicted notable impact on the state-controlled company’s quarterly and yearly output, due to the strike. Incidentally, the mine had been operating at over 60% of its capacity during the entire period of strike action.

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The estimates provided by Chilean mining consultant PLUSmining suggests that Codelco might have lost nearly $2.5 million per day in missed production, to the tune of nearly 500 tonnes per day. This means that the company’s revenue has already been impacted by $35 million on account of the strike. The lost production during this period is estimated at around 7,000 tonnes. Meantime, Tanner Investments foresees the Chilean overall copper output to witness a decline of 2.8%, due to the labor action.

It must be noted that the Chuquicamata open pit copper mine had produced 321,000 tonnes of copper in 2018. The mine production accounted for only around 5.5% of the country’s total output.

The temporary stoppage of works by union members at the mine had sent the copper prices to the highest level in more than a month.