This article was published in the Australian newspaperStrike...

This article was published in the Australian newspaper

Strike shuts down Chilean copper mineFont Size: Decrease Increase Print Page: Print April 20, 2008
THE world's largest underground copper mine has been shut down due to a strike by subcontract workers, the state mining company Codelco said today.

Work at El Teniente, just south of Santiago, was stopped last night for security reasons after the striking workers erected barricades blocking access to the mine and threw stones at buses bringing other miners to the job.

Ricardo Alvarez, Codelco's manager of the El Teniente mine, told Radio Cooperativa that the Friday night and Saturday morning shifts were suspended "to not put at risk the security of our workers.''

He did not say how long the suspension would last.

El Teniente, located 80 kilometres south of the capital, produces some 418,000 tonnes of copper each year.

Two smaller Codelco copper mines, El Salvador and Andina, have been shut since Wednesday due to striking subcontract workers. El Salvador produced 64,000 tonnes last year and Andina produced 218,000 tonnes.

The workers maintain that Codelco has not followed through on a labour accord adopted after a strike last year. But Codelco maintains that the workers must negotiate directly with the subcontract companies that provide them to the mines.

- AFP