BHP Spence copper mine workers in Chile to extend talks for two days - union
SANTIAGO – Workers at BHP Group's Spence copper mine in Chile said on Wednesday they would extend negotiations with the company for a few more days to try to reach agreement on a new contract and avoid a strike at the operation, the union told Reuters.
The union representing 1 100 workers at the mine in Chile's northern Atacama Desert said it hoped to reach an agreement by the end of Thursday.
"We´ll extend our talks by two more days," a union official told Reuters late on Tuesday evening.
BHP did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
BHP is also negotiating with the union representing workers at Chile's Escondida copper mine, the world's largest, which told Reuters it was keeping an open mind but also building a war chest for a potential strike.
At the same time, 200 remote workers from BHP's Integrated Operations Center in the Chilean capital Santiago, who run Spence and Escondida, the world's largest copper mine, remain on strike after walking off the job when they failed to reach a contract agreement on May 27.
The announcement of a settlement at Spence will reduce some of the pressure on BHP. It comes as global copper prices hover near record highs and amid rising political risk in the region, with political shifts bringing potential changes to miners' taxation and royalty regimes under way in both No. 1 copper producer Chile and neighboring Peru, the No. 2 producer.
Spence, in northern Chile, produced 146 700 t of copper last year out of Chile's total 5.7-million tonnes.
BHP said this year that it hoped a new, $2.46-billion concentrator plant at the site would extend the useful life of facility by more than 50 years and see it producing 300 000 t/y by February next year.
Comments
Research Reports
Projects
Latest News
Showroom
Supplier & Distributor of the Widest Range of Accurate & Easy-to-Use Alcohol Breathalysers
VISIT SHOWROOM
For over 60 years, VEGA has provided industry-leading products for the measurement of level, density, weight and pressure. As the inventor of the...
VISIT SHOWROOM
Press Office
Announcements
What's On
Subscribe to improve your user experience...
Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):
Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):
All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors
including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.
Already a subscriber?
Forgotten your password?
Receive weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine (print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
➕
Recieve daily email newsletters
➕
Access to full search results
➕
Access archive of magazine back copies
➕
Access to Projects in Progress
➕
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA
R4500 (equivalent of R375 a month)
SUBSCRIBEAll benefits from Option 1
➕
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports on various industrial and mining sectors, in PDF format, including on:
Electricity
➕
Water
➕
Energy Transition
➕
Hydrogen
➕
Roads, Rail and Ports
➕
Coal
➕
Gold
➕
Platinum
➕
Battery Metals
➕
etc.
Receive all benefits from Option 1 or Option 2 delivered to numerous people at your company
➕
Multiple User names and Passwords for simultaneous log-ins
➕
Intranet integration access to all in your organisation
