SANTIAGO – Chile's largest copper mines posted mixed results through November of 2018, with a slight drop in output at state miner Codelco offset by a surge in production from BHP's Escondida, the world's largest copper mine.
In all, copper production in the world's top producer of the red metal reached 5.33-million tonnes, a 6% increase over the same period the previous year.
Escondida, in northern Chile, produced 1.15-million tonnes through November, up 40.7% compared with the same period in 2017, when an historic strike shut down the mine for more than 40 days.
Production from state-run miner Codelco's deposits reached 1.621-million tonnes in the first 11 months of 2018, a drop of 2.4% over the previous period with downturns at almost all its facilities.
The country's second-largest mine by output Collahuasi, owned by Anglo American and Glencore, ramped up production by 5.8% to 502 600 tonnes.