The high international prices of copper have caused the workers of the biggest copper company in the world to start a strike 12 days ago. They are asking for a better salary. Last night, 800 miners had a violent incident with the police forces who were trying to break up the strike. Today Escondida Mine decided to stop production. Esther Croudo (ES) explains the impact of the decision:

“..Since August 7 at 7:00 in the morning Escondida Mine stopped production; the copper mine with the highest production in the world, that represents 8% of the world production and the 23.5% of the Chilean production, which contributes 2.5% in the gross domestic product.

Even though some tasks continue, the official day of stopage was today. She continues explaining that:

more than 2000 unionized workers at the mine demanded that the salary’s and benefits should reflect the actual high price of the “red gold.” When have we seen an average prize of US $3 per pound?”

Regarding the reason that convinced the enterprise to stop production tocopilla online (ES) writes:

“the enterprise said that the insecurity was provoked by the striking miners plus the obstacles in the roads that lead to the ore deposits. The loss of the Escondida Mine is US 100 million dollars”