MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Chilean copper industry recovers and regains over half lost jobs

Mining companies are re-launching their expansion plans

The Chilean mining industry has regained more than half of the jobs lost in the recent recession and is anticipating further growth, spurred in large part by a growing value for copper, according to the latest numbers from the Minister of Mining.

The price of copper has risen steadily since crashing in mid-January 2009, settling at roughly 2.54 US dollars per pound on Monday, almost a 15% increase in just the last two weeks, though it has fallen to roughly 2.45 USD since then.

Twelve thousand jobs had disappeared in the mining sector at the economy’s lowest point, but over 7,000 of those have returned, said the Ministry.

Compañía Minera Doña Inés de Collahuasi, a major mining company and operator of the second largest copper mine in Chile, has begun the initial stages for environmental approval for an expansion of their processing plant. They seek to raise their refined copper production to 600,000 tons by 2010 and reach a million tons by 2015.

The company produced 464,000tons in 2008.

Collahuasi, which is owned by the London-based Anglo American plc, and the Zug, Switzerland-based Xstrata, as well as a Japanese conglomerate, will be pursuing their project with an investment of 750 million USD, designed to increase the mine’s capacity to transport the material by up to 170.000 tons per day.

These projects, Collahuasi executives say, will create 2.500 temporary jobs for 22 months and 300 permanent positions. The mining industry represents roughly 1.5% of Chile’s labour force.

Collahuasi currently sits third in Chilean copper exports, behind international BHP Billion’s Escondida mine, the largest single copper mine in the world, and the state-run CODELCO, which operates several mines throughout the country and is the largest single exporter in the world.

By Daniel Zarchy - Santiago Times