Freeport-McMoRan's Provides Labour Update on Cerro Verde Copper Mine in Peru
March 22, 2017 at 12:38 pm EDT
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The trade union said that striking workers at Freeport-McMoRan's Cerro Verde copper mine in Peru, who will be forced to return to work March 23,2017 by a labor ministry ruling, will immediately restart the strike on March 24, 2017. The 13-day stoppage by 1,300 miners, which began March 10, 2017 was declared illegal by the ministry last week, granting the company the power to fire striking workers, union general secretary Zenón Mujica told BNamericas. The company and the union have been unable to reach agreement on a bigger share of profits, safer working conditions and improved health benefits. Cerro Verde, which is close to the city of Arequipa and is the large copper mine in Peru, has been operating at 50% of capacity after hiring extra personnel in addition to its 300 non-union workers, according to the union. Workers last staged a strike at the mine in 2011.
Freeport-McMoRan Inc. specializes in the exploration and operation of copper and gold mines located primarily in the United States, Peru, Chile, Indonesia and Congo. Net sales break down by family of products as follows:
- copper (74.6%): refined copper and copper concentrates (4.1 billion ounces sold in 2023);
- gold (14.5%): 1,713,000 ounces sold;
- molybdenum (8.4%): 1.3 billion ounces sold;
- other (2.5%).
Net sales are distributed geographically as follows: the United States (31.8%), Switzerland (17.4%), Japan (15%), Spain (5.5%), Singapore (5.1%), China (4.7%), Indonesia (3.3%), Germany (3.1%), Chile (1.9%), the United Kingdom (0.7%), and other (11.5%).