Antofagasta restarts Los Pelambres after storms lead to shutdown

Antofagasta PLC (LSE:ANTO) has restarted operations at its Los Pelambres copper mine in Chile after heavy rainfall and power outages forced a shutdown. The FTSE 100 miner said the processing plant and mining operations resumed on Thursday following "intense precipitation" that began late on Saturday 18 July.

Storms in northern Chile this week have killed at least 13 people, destroyed around 2,800 homes and left more than 60,000 people cut off as flooding and mud blocked roads.

Antofagasta said there were no safety incidents at Los Pelambres and no material damage to equipment or key infrastructure, including the El Mauro tailings dam, which is protected by a series of surge ponds designed to capture sudden inflows. Controlled discharges of excess rainwater were being managed through the site's water management system, it added.

The company maintained its full-year copper production guidance of 650,000-700,000 tonnes and will provide a further update alongside its half-year results on 13 August.

Weather-related difficulties were first reported at Los Pelambres in last week's production report, with copper sales falling 11% quarter on quarter to 58,200 tonnes during the second quarter after adverse conditions affected port operations, although it said at the time that delayed volumes were expected to be recovered during the current quarter. Group copper production declined 1% to 142,000 tonnes during the second quarter, while first-half output fell 9% to 285,000 tonnes because of lower production at Los Pelambres and Centinela. Antofagasta said it expects quarterly production to increase through the remainder of the year as ore throughput and grades im...