The Supervisors’ Union at Escondida mine in Chile has rejected BHP’s final offer in contract negotiations. A failure to arrive at consensus could lead to workers calling a strike. The Union is yet to announce its further course of action. Should the Union call a strike, it could lead to slowdowns and have a bearing on copper prices. Copper output at Escondida in 2019 stood at 1.19mn mt in 2019.
The government mediation between the Union and management ended on Thursday after both the parties failed to reach an agreement during the initial bargaining period.