Collahuasi Copper Miners Accept Offer, Ending Strike (Update1)

Dec. 6 (Bloomberg) -- Unionized workers at Anglo American Plc and Xstrata Plc’s Collahuasi venture in Chile accepted a wage offer today, signaling the end of a month-long strike at the world’s third-largest copper mine.

Members voted 521 in favour of the proposal and 398 against at the union’s de facto headquarters in an abandoned school in the city of Iquique, the union said on its website. The offer includes a bonus of 14 million pesos ($29,000), a union official briefed on the matter said in a telephone interview.

Cia. Minera Dona Ines de Collahuasi SCM, the mine’s operating company, is "satisfied” with the result, spokeswoman Bernardita Fernandez said in an e-mailed response to questions.

The strike, which started Nov. 5, became the longest recorded at a major privately owned Chilean copper mine when it surpassed a 26-day stoppage at BHP Billiton Ltd.’s Escondida in 2006. While the company used non-union workers and contractors to help run the mine, prospects of an output cut helped drive copper to a record on the London Metal Exchange last month.

Global inventories monitored by the LME, Shanghai Futures Exchange and the Comex have slumped 20 percent since the end of June to the lowest since November 2009.

While the strike supported prices, a resolution at Collahuasi probably won’t cause prices to plunge, said Jonathan Barratt, managing director of Commodity Broking Services Pty.

Tight Supply

"We have very tight supply of the metal,” he said in a telephone interview from Sydney. "If anything people will see any negative reaction in the price as an opportunity to buy.”

The metal for delivery in three months climbed 0.5 percent to $8,769.50 a metric ton today on the LME.

The company and union returned to the negotiating table Nov. 29 after individual talks with workers didn’t garner enough acceptances under Chilean law to end the strike. Chile’s Work Inspectorate issued a resolution last month for talks to resume.

Collahuasi produced 535,000 metric tons last year, or 3.5 percent of global output, according to Standard Bank Plc. Its production is only surpassed by Escondida and Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc.’s Grasberg mine in Indonesia.

Anglo American and Xstrata each own 44 percent of Cia. Minera Dona Ines de Collahuasi SCM, the mine’s operating company. A group led by Mitsui & Co. holds the remainder.