Antofagasta's Centinela strike ends after deal with unions

Workers from two unions at Chile's ‌Centinela copper mine have ratified an agreement reached with Antofagasta Minerals on a new collective bargaining contract, ending a strike of more than a week, the unions and the company ‌said on Sunday. More than 700 members of the Distrito Centinela and Minera Esperanza ‌unions began the strike on October 7 after contract talks broke down. They had sought equal benefits for workers regardless of which union they belonged to.

The parties returned to the negotiating table on ⁠Tuesday ​in an effort to resolve ⁠the dispute. "The Distrito Centinela and Minera Esperanza unions announce the successful conclusion of our collective bargaining ⁠process, after 94.49% of participating workers voted to approve the proposed collective agreement," the unions said ​in a statement, which was followed by a company statement confirming the deal.

Three ⁠workers had been on a hunger strike in an effort to pressure both sides into finding a ⁠solution ​to the deadlocked talks. Antofagasta said on Wednesday it had managed to maintain production at normal levels, avoiding any negative impact from the strike at the mine, which ⁠produced 240,400 metric tons of copper in 2025.

The strike at Centinela, along with the ultimately unrealized ⁠risk of ⁠a supervisors' strike at BHP's Escondida mine, had been supporting global copper prices amid concerns about the industry's ability to increase supply ‌sufficiently to meet ‌expected future demand.