Chile May Copper Output Rose 3.6% on Year to 458,640 Tons

Jun 29, 2012 (Dow Jones) SANTIAGO--Copper output in Chile, the world's largest copper producer, rose 3.6% on the year in May to 458,640 metric tons, the government statistics agency said Friday.

The National Statistics Institute, or INE, attributed the gain to increased production at mines that came on line in 2011 and to unnamed mines processing bigger quantities of copper-containing ore.

For the January-May period, Chile produced 2,191,985 tons of copper, an increase of 1.9% when compared with the first five months of 2011.

Last year, Chile produced 5.25 million tons of the industrial metal, which represented a decrease of 3.2% from what it mined in 2010.