Antofagasta Says Outage Has No Material Impact on Los Pelambres

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The recent coastal wind and waves at northern Chilean ports has caused an extensive delay in copper exports by Chile in January. Of several large and medium-scale ports in northern Chile that transport copper cathode and copper concentrates like Antofagasta, Mejillones, Iquique, Arica and Patache, four ports could not load copper cathode as large-scale vessels failed to call at ports, with the exception of the Antofagasta port.

The government of Chile announced on September 11 that the country would extend the state of catastrophe for another 90 days from September 15. As of September 11, Chile confirmed a total of 430,535 coronavirus cases, with 11,850 fatalities.  

Operations at Chilean state-owned copper smelter Hernan Videla Lira has been suspended due to a strike, according to the miner Enami.

Copper production in Chile rose 15.1% year-on-year to 510,400t in October, the highest monthly rate since December last year.

A strike is going to hit Teck Resources’ copper mine Quebrada Blanca in Chile on Wednesday due to a failure to agree on contracts mediated by the government.

The bank raises copper price expectation from $2.8 per pound to $2.95 per pound. Hence, the bank predicts the country’s copper export in 2018 will rise 9.6% to $76.4 billion on yearly basis.

Peru's energy and mines minister announced the country will start three large copper mine projects in 2018 which are worth $7.27 billion, El Peruano reported.

The Hong Kong Observatory reported a 5.1-magnitude earthquake struck Chile's central region.

Chile’s mining cost was the highest in the world in 2015, although most companies slashed cost and postponed many projects, wenhua.com reported.