Lundin confirms job cuts at Chile's Candelaria copper mine
Canadian miner Lundin confirmed on Friday it was cutting 106 jobs at its Candelaria copper mine in Chile to "improve competitiveness and productivity", amid reports that workers had begun a 48-hour strike.
In a statement sent to Reuters, the company said the job cuts represented less than 2% of the operation's workforce, including an unspecified number of voluntary early retirement offered to other staff.
"Lundin Mining has created over 1 000 employee and contractor positions at the Candelaria Mining Complex since acquisition in 2014 and continues to make significant investments to improve and increase productivity the operation," it said. "There are currently approximately 5 900 people working at site."
Lundin has operations in Chile, Portugal, Sweden and the US.
In September, its incoming chief executive officer told Reuters in an interview that the company was looking for copper mines and projects and willing to spend up to $3-billion on mergers and acquisitions.
An 80%, $1.85-billion purchase of Freeport-McMoRan's stake in Candelaria in 2014 was the company's last major acquisition.
The company said in October that planned lower ore grades had led to lower production in the third quarter. The company is also in the process of upgrading its milling and underground mining operations.
Nelson Araya, a trade union leader at Candelaria, told Chile's Radio Cooperativa that workers would strike for 48 hours from Friday over the cutting of 40 jobs from the union.
He criticised the company's poor communication, adding: "There have been many more complex times, from the point of view of the price of copper, the business itself and the management of the company, and the workers through the unions always kept channels of communication open."
Up until September, the mine had produced 77,800 tonnes of copper.
Comments
The
content
you are trying to access is only available to subscribers.
If you are already a subscriber, you can Login Here.
If you are not a subscriber, you can subscribe now, by selecting one of the below options.
For more information or assistance, please contact us at subscriptions@creamermedia.co.za.
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