Shortage of scrap metals is hurting the country's manufacturing and processing sectors.

Company says part of the pit will cave in "anytime" in the next five days.

Rio also narrowed its estimated first production from its mine to between October 2022 and June 2023.

Camino has legal title to 39 claims totaling 22,500 hectares covering its copper discovery in Peru.

Production at Codelco rose 3% year-on-year to 144,200 tonnes.

LME three-month copper ended the first half of the year at $6,015 per tonne, up a whopping 38% from March lows.

The assets include the Paterson exploration project, Nifty copper operation and Maroochydore copper project.