BHP says Chile’s copper operations ‘normal’ despite strike

BHP said operations at the world’s largest copper mine Escondida and at the smaller Spence mine in Chile were normal on Tuesday despite a strike by a union representing remote workers.

The 200-member union, which runs BHP’s Integrated Operations Center in Santiago, walked off the job on Thursday after failing to reach agreement with management on a labor contract following weeks of negotiations.

Global miner BHP subsequently called in substitute workers to keep the mine running, a move the union has contested with Chilean labor authorities.

“Spence and Escondida mines have informed that their operations are continuing normally,” the company said in a brief statement.

The strike coincides with a spike in copper prices fueled by soaring demand globally following more than a year of coronavirus pandemic-induced stagnation. The rising prices have given additional leverage to organized labor at Chile’s sprawling copper mines.

A separate union of workers at the Spence mine entered a final round of government-mediated talks this week in a bid to stave off its own strike after rejecting the company’s contract offer.

The much larger union of on-site workers at Escondida is also set to begin collective bargaining for a new contract in the coming weeks, and have said they were bracing for a prolonged strike.

(By Fabian Cambero and Dave Sherwood; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and Grant McCool)