BHP Dodges Chile Copper Strike With Eleventh-Hour Wage Deal

  • Accord allays fears of furthering tightening of global supply
  • Avoiding a strike at Spence may augur well for Escondida talks
Photographer: Waldo Swiegers/Bloomberg
Lock
This article is for subscribers only.

BHP Group averted a strike at its second-largest copper mine in Chile after workers at the Spence operation accepted a final wage offer on the last day of mediated talks.

The deal will ease concerns over a potential stoppage that would have further tightened global supplies of the metal. It comes after staff at a BHP operations center in Santiago endedBloomberg Terminal a strike and returned to work this week. Attention will now shift to wage talks at BHP’s giant Escondida mine.