An agreement may not be easy, according to Reuters sources, due to Samarco's liabilities related to its 2015 disaster in the city of Mariana.

Unions had threatened to strike for the past week if the Codelco board did not invest to upgrade the Ventanas smelter.

The government had previously planned to announce its final selection last month.

Peru's central bank lowered its 2022 growth projection to 3.1% from 3.4% previously.

The workers at Codelco have complained about a lack of investment at the firm's troubled Ventanas smelter.

Chile is also in the process of overhauling its market-orientated Constitution which dates back to the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet.

Amidst talks of nationalization of mines and stricter regulations for miners in several jurisdictions across South America, Ecuador’s Energy Minister Xavier Vera promises a different path.