This is getting serious:
SANTIAGO (Dow Jones)--Chilean state mining giant Corporacion Nacional del
Cobre de Chile, or Codelco, shut down production at its Andina division, citing
safety concerns after protesting contract workers injured a miner on his way to
work, the division said Monday.
The shutdown goes into effect immediatly and there's no start-up date yet,
the Andina division spokeman said in a telephone interview.
"We're monitoring the situation daily to decide if we restart production,"
the spokesman said, "but conditions right now just aren't safe."
Striking contract workers threw stones at a bus carrying workers to the mine
site Monday morning, seriously injuring a worker in the face, according to the
Codelco representative.
Andina, located high in the Andes mountains near the border with Argentina
northeast of Santiago, produced 236,000 metric tons of copper last year, or
about 15% of Codelco's 2006 annual output.
Contract workers said Monday they will continue protesting until their
demands are met. They went on strike two weeks ago and have left Codelco with a
$20 million bill for damages after protests and illegal occupations.
Codelco is the world's largest copper producer, with an annual output around
1.8 million metric tons. |
