Copper market to feel impact of accident in Chile as plants shut

Codelco stopped processing ore at its biggest copper mine in Chile after a deadly tunnel collapse July 31 prompted a halt of underground activities.

The El Teniente complex ran out of stockpiled ore and had to put its plants, including the Caletones smelter, on care and maintenance, the state-owned company said Tuesday. About 5,000 workers were brought to the ground-level facilities to check that equipment wasn’t damaged and is ready to restart.

Ripples from the collapse that killed six workers could start to reach global markets soon. The shutdowns are expected to reduce output of the metal used in wiring, electronics and construction by about 30,000 metric tons a month, a quarter of Codelco’s production.

“The situation is very delicate and an investigation is underway,” said Michael Cuoco, head of metals at StoneX Financial Inc. “As long as it’s ongoing, I find it extremely unlikely that the mine will be able to reopen.”

Copper prices haven’t delivered a major reaction to the Chilean outage so far, with investors also grappling with the fallout from US tariffs. The metal on the London Metal Exchange rose 0.4% to settle at $9,676 a ton at 5:51 p.m. local time.

Codelco is committed to resuming operations as soon as conditions allow, it said in a filing on Monday. The company is convening an international panel to audit the mine and determine what happened.

The main union at El Teniente said it is hoping to have an agreement in place in the coming days that would allow a gradual return to work in areas not directly affected by the collapse. Still, any resumption would have to be cleared by mines regulator Sernageomin.

(By James Attwood)