SANTIAGO—Subcontractor miners at Chilean copper giant Codelco's three smallest divisions on Monday accepted a government proposal to end a strike in its 20th day that has pushed prices to new life highs, a union source said.
Subcontractors at Codelco's Andina, Salvador and Ventanas divisions accepted a government proposal that the two parties fulfill a series of agreements reached last year, among them a pledge by the state-owned giant to absorb some of them into its full-time ranks.
Subcontract workers at the giant Codelco Norte and Teniente divisions were still voting on whether to end the strike, the latest in a series of sometimes violent protests to demand a bigger share of windfall copper revenues and improved work conditions.
"Andina, Salvador and Ventanas approved the proposal. We don't know about Teniente division and Chuquicamata (part of the Codelco Norte division)," the union source said on condition of anonymity.
Codelco said in a statement it was now running "at 80 percent", and was implementing a contingency plan at its Teniente division, home to the world's largest underground copper mine, allowing it to continue work at the deposit.
Codelco, the world's biggest copper miner, said last Tuesday it had lost about 19,000 tonnes of production due to the strike, or about $100 million in losses, but on Monday gave no updated output losses.
U.S. copper futures surged to all-time record highs in thin volume at the open on Monday, before the vote announcement.
Codelco said its Aninda division had been resuming production since Saturday, and that its Salvador division remained shut. Its Codelco Norte and Ventanas divisions were operating normally.
Teniente, 50 miles south of Santiago, produced 405,000 tons of copper last year.
Andina, about 50 miles northeast of the Chilean capital, produced 218,000 tons of copper in 2007. Salvador, 685 miles north of Santiago, produced 64,000 tons of copper last year.
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