Copper Inventory in Major Chinese Markets Fell 2,200 mt on Week

BHP formally requested government mediation on October 5 in its collective bargaining dispute with Escondida’s No. 2 Supervisors and Staff union. Under Chilean labor rules, the process temporarily suspends implementation of the approved strike for at least five working days, allowing the two sides to continue negotiations and improve their proposals. The mediation can be extended for a further five days by mutual agreement. Around 95% of participating union members previously voted for strike action, so the risk has not disappeared; rather, the immediate threat of a stoppage has been pushed back. With Centinela simultaneously nearing a potential strike, labor negotiations at major Chilean copper mines are becoming an increasingly important near-term concentrate-supply risk.

Labor negotiations at Antofagasta Minerals’ Centinela copper mine have reached a critical stage after mandatory mediation ended without an agreement on October 6. The Minera Esperanza and Distrito Centinela unions, representing 708 workers, said they had begun contingency preparations and could launch a strike from October 7 local time if no last-minute agreement is reached.

The Democratic Republic of Congo has launched a 36-month nationwide airborne geophysical and geological mapping programme aimed at expanding national geoscientific coverage from 22.27% to 46.1%, according to the Ministry of Mines and the National Geological Service of Congo. The programme, known as PC2G-RDC, will deploy eight aircraft to collect high-resolution magnetic, radiometric, gravimetric and electromagnetic data across priority regions including Kongo Central, Kwango, Kwilu, Greater Kasai and Greater Katanga. The programme is being coordinated by the National Geological Service of Congo, financed by the Fonds Minier pour les Générations Futures and executed by Spanish geophysics company Xcalibur Multiphysics Group. The expansion would increase mapped geoscientific coverage by 23.83 percentage points, more than doubling the current level. Congolese authorities estimate that less than 10% of the country has been thoroughly explored, despite the DRC already ranking as Africa’s largest copper producer and the world’s largest cobalt producer. The latest survey phase builds on geological work previously carried out in Greater Katanga, the country’s main copper-cobalt producing region, while extending systematic airborne mapping into less-explored parts of the DRC. The surveys are intended to identify geophysical anomalies and improve the geological datasets used to prioritize areas for subsequent ground-based exploration. The government expects the resulting datasets to reduce geological uncertainty for future exploration, improve identification of prospective mineral zones and strengthen the state’s ability to evaluate mineral-development opportunities. Any anomalies identified through the airborne surveys would still require ground verification, geochemical work and drilling before a mineral deposit could be established. APAnews Raising national geoscientific coverage from 22.27% to 46.1% would materially expand the amount of modern geological data available for mineral exploration in the DRC. For the copper sector, the immediate impact is on exploration efficiency rather than mine supply: improved airborne datasets can narrow target areas before companies commit capital to detailed fieldwork and drilling. Given that less than 10% of the country has been thoroughly explored, the programme could expand the longer-term pipeline of copper exploration targets beyond the established Greater Katanga Copperbelt. However, the programme itself does not add reserves or production; any prospective anomalies would require years of follow-up exploration and development before contributing to copper supply.