Slowdown at Chile's giant El Teniente copper mine

Slowdown at Chile's giant El Teniente copper mine. Source: Dow Jones MetalSource Non-Ferrous Metals. Operations at El Teniente, the world's largest underground copper mine, slowed to a minimum Sunday due to a violent strike by subcontractors, an official with the state-run CODELCO mining company told AFP. CODELCO officials decided that their full-time workers "should no longer come up to the mine due to lack of safety," a company official told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity. "There are emergency shifts operating -- we have not completely paralyzed operations," the official added. Some 10,000 subcontracted miners have been on strike since May 25, seeking pay and benefits equal to that of the unionized workers. The strike turned violent in the past days as the striking subcontractors hurled rocks at buses carrying employees to the mine. Chile is the world's largest copper producer, accounting for one-third of global production. The El Teniente copper mine, located 80 kilometers (50 miles) south of the capital Santiago in the Andes at a height of 2,500 meters (8,200 feet) above the sea level, has 2,400 kilometers (1,500 miles) of underground galleries. CODELCO, the world's largest copper producer, has 19,347 full-time employees and 41,241 subcontracted workers at the several mines it owns. CODELCO accounts for 11 percent of world production for the metal, which is used in plumbing, heating, electrical and telecommunications wiring. In 2010 the company generated more than 5.7 billion dollars for the Chilean state, and produced 1.7 billion tons of copper.