[miningmx.com] — CHILE’S giant Collahuasi mine on Monday confirmed workers on two shifts have downed tools at the world’s No. 3 copper mine, adding that its plants were fully operational, suggesting output was not affected.
Union leaders said earlier on Monday both shifts had halted work over fears of coming layoffs, and one said output was “paralysed.”
Collahuasi has laid off a “limited” number of workers who have violated the legal framework of their contracts, the company said in a statement later on Monday, a move that could heighten tensions between management and union workers. The
company did not specify how many workers were affected, and union leaders were not immediately available for comment.
Collahuasi, which is owned by miners Xstrata and Anglo American and produces around 3% of the world’s miner copper, has been hit by extreme weather and labor
unrest in the past year.
Sources at the mine said workers on one shift had stopped extraction, and said a second shift had been unable to go to work.
“Both shifts (night and morning) have stopped over a supposed layoff plan in response to our previously organised stoppages,” said union leader Cristian Arancibia.
“We’re going to continue with the stoppage until we have it in writing the (layoffs) aren’t going to happen.” Some workers at Collahuasi held a partial one-day strike in
October over bonus payments, but the company said production was not affected.
That in turn followed a 32-day strike over pay by workers at Collahuasi that began in November last year, the longest ever at a private mine in Chile. Analysts say union posturing due to internal politics has also been a factor.
Chile’s mining sector has been plagued by disruptions in recent months due to harsh weather, equipment failure and strikes as workers tap into a wider vein of growing discontent among Chileans demanding a bigger share of an economic boom fueled by high international copper prices.
Collahuasi’s output dwindled in the first quarter due to heavy rains that disrupted operations during the Southern Hemisphere summer. Output was then hit by an unusually severe winter storm, while its Patache port terminal was disrupted for
months for repairs.
Collahuasi will not be able to make up all of the output lost due to disruptions earlier in the year, CEO Giancarlo Bruno told Reuters on Wednesday.
Bruno however said the mine had been making up production, and that 2011 output would likely be slightly below 2010 levels. Collahuasi produced 504,000 tonnes of copper in 2010, when output was hit by a month-long strike. The mine has
previously said it expected to produce 500,000 tonnes of copper this year.
