The world's biggest copper mine by output, Chile's Escondida, announced on Friday profits of $1.086 billion for the first semester, just over a month after avoiding a strike by workers.
Production increased by 45 percent between January and June, thus recuperating lost revenue over the same period last year that was provoked by a 44-day strike.
The mine's president, Mauro Neves, described the results as "positive" and said owners BHP had paid the Chilean state $524 million in taxes.
Production, boosted by a new plant, reached almost 650,000 tonnes for the period.
Following a $3.4 billion investment, Escondida also launched the biggest desalination plant in Latin America, capable of supplying 2,500 liters of water a second to the mine.
A potentially crippling shutdown was averted on August 17 following weeks of negotiations with the signing of a new collective contract between the largest trade union representing 2,500 miners and the plant's Anglo-Australian owners.
Last year's strike caused a 39 percent drop in production over the first half of the year, costing the company $740 million.
Even so, the mine earned $1.2 billion last year, an increase of 20 percent on 2016.
Almost a third of the world's copper, around 5.6 million tons, is produced in Chile, fueled largely by China's huge industrial demand.
The world’s biggest copper mine by output, Chile’s Escondida, announced on Friday profits of $1.086 billion for the first semester, just over a month after avoiding a strike by workers.
Production increased by 45 percent between January and June, thus recuperating lost revenue over the same period last year that was provoked by a 44-day strike.
The mine’s president, Mauro Neves, described the results as “positive” and said owners BHP had paid the Chilean state $524 million in taxes.
Production, boosted by a new plant, reached almost 650,000 tonnes for the period.
Following a $3.4 billion investment, Escondida also launched the biggest desalination plant in Latin America, capable of supplying 2,500 liters of water a second to the mine.
A potentially crippling shutdown was averted on August 17 following weeks of negotiations with the signing of a new collective contract between the largest trade union representing 2,500 miners and the plant’s Anglo-Australian owners.
Last year’s strike caused a 39 percent drop in production over the first half of the year, costing the company $740 million.
Even so, the mine earned $1.2 billion last year, an increase of 20 percent on 2016.
Almost a third of the world’s copper, around 5.6 million tons, is produced in Chile, fueled largely by China’s huge industrial demand.
