Top Chile copper mine restricted on workers strike

UJINA, Chile (Reuters) - Chile's huge Collahuasi copper mine, one of the world's largest deposits, said it was operating under restricted conditions on Saturday after a strike by subcontract workers demanding higher salaries.

The operator of Collahuasi, which produced 535,000 tonnes of copper last year or about 3.3 percent of the world's mined copper, did not say if it was continuing to extract the mineral from the huge open pit located more than 4,400 meters (14,440 ft) above sea level in the Andes mountains.

Earlier on Saturday police lobbed tear gas canisters against strikers who have blocked mine access roads since Friday, resulting in the arrest 16, but there were no injuries, police commander Hector Diaz told Reuters at Ujina.

No protests or violence were seen by a Reuters reporter standing at the entrance of the mine.

Full-time workers' unions inside the mine said strikers remain in the mine and that employees are not working in the field due to security concerns. They said output has been halted since the strike and blockade started on Friday.

A Collahuasi spokeswoman in the capital Santiago did not answer calls to answer questions about the mine's output. A Reuters reporter was not allowed to enter the mine.

Global miners Xstrata and Anglo American jointly own the mine with a 44 percent stake each. Japanese consortium Mitsui & Co is a minority stakeholder.

A group of unions representing subcontractor workers said it was in talks with the mine operator and could reach an agreement to lift the strike later on Saturday.

"We are waiting for them (company) to call us and hopefully we can reach an agreement this afternoon," Ricardo Arellano told Reuters. "We are tired of being discriminated against, being treated differently than staff workers."

Subcontractors are employed by a mix of foreign and local companies that provide services ranging from catering to transportation and mine excavation. They usually get smaller benefits and salaries than their full-time peers.

Collahuasi employed 4,250 subcontractors at the end of 2008, the company said in a report published last year.

Leaders of the union representing the mine's 1,600-member full-time workers said they sympathized with the striking subcontractors, signaling what could be tough wage negotiations when the union's contract expires in November.

"Our members will not enter the mine because of safety reasons," said Cristian Arancibia, a union leader trying to mediate between both parties on the site. "Operations here are still down."

(Reporting by Alonso Soto; Editing by Eric Walsh)

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