Chile’s nice Cochilco people today published the production numbers for the country’s copper sector to September 2014. Overall production has risen by 0.4% in the first three quarters of 2014 compared to the same period in 2013, but I thought I’d take a look at the breakdown of production by mine to see who’s winning and who’s losing. Charts, please!
The BHP-run La Escondida is still the world’s single biggest copper mine and dominates the scene in Chile, though we note a slight reduction in YoY production. Then comes the Codelco “Chuquicamata/Radomiro Tomic/Ministro Hales” division (I’ve sliced Codelco into its several divisions, you’ll note), then the four 100kt/qtr mines (Collahausi, Anglo, Teniente, Pelambres). For the record, when you add in the “other” (i.e. the small mines) the country total for copper production in the first nine months of 2014 comes to 4.2547 million tonnes.
This second chart shows the YoY percentage changes for individual mine production, to give you a clearer idea of the current winners and loser (less regard for absolute levels of production tonnages).
Chile’s fastest growing producer is Collahuasi, up 18.0% YoY. Spence (+13.8%) doing well too, but you’ll note just five others are growing and a full eleven mines are seeing production levels drop (or 12 if you include “other”).