Codelco to shut mines

摘要

THE world's largest copper producer, Chile's state-owned Corporation Nacional del Cobre (Codelco), plans to shut the mines at its Salvador division, its smallest producer, because of high costs and depleted reserves. Salvador, which has operations in northern Chile including the Inca underground copper mine and the open-pit mines, Campamento and Damiana Norte, will close by 2011, The division produced 74,8741 of refined copper last year, some 4.1 percent of Codelco's total of 1.84 Mt. Codelco has four mining divisions in Chile, the largest of which is Codelco Norte, which produced 982,8171 of refined copper last year.