Escondida, the world's largest copper mine, said on Tuesday talks with workers in their fourth week of a strike have been completely frozen and denied union reports of informal discussions, according to Reuters. The two sides are trying to build a new salary and benefits package at a time when copper prices are five times what they were when they signed their 2003 contract. As the union demands giant bonuses linked to billion-dollar profits at the company, Escondida looks to protect itself from a cyclical downturn in prices for the red metal. "The union says too many things," said Pedro Correa, a spokesman for the mine that is owned by the two biggest international miners in the world, BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto Plc.. "We are not talking," he said. Talks between the two sides broke off more than a week ago after the 2,052-member union at Escondida rejected an offer for a 4 percent raise for a four-year contract and special bonus of $18,000. The union said the offer was pretax and fell short of their expectations for a wage hike of at least 8 percent and a $19,000 net special bonus linked to record copper prices. The union could not be reached for comment on Tuesday. "We don't have any agreement yet," said Escondida's Correa. The strike, which has seen workers clash sometimes violently with police in demonstrations, has stimulated international debate about how much workers' should partake in soaring global mining profits, particularly in copper. Correa said production of concentrates at the mine, set high in the hills of the Atacama desert in northern Chile, was still at 50 percent despite efforts to "normalize" output. He said cathode output had been boosted to 20 percent from 15 percent previously. Prior to the strike, which has lasted an uncharacteristically long time for Chile, Escondida was expected to produce close to 1.3 million tonnes of copper in 2006.
