Chile produced 376,948 mt of copper in February, down 16.7% year on year and the lowest monthly figure for exports in almost six years, government figures showed Thursday.
The drop largely reflects the effect of a prolonged strike at the BHP Billiton-controlled Escondida mine, the world's largest copper operation, statistics institute INE said.
Other factors included stoppages at operations due to extreme weather during the period and unscheduled maintenance work.
The strike, which halted all production at Escondida from February 9, ended last week when workers agreed to return to work without a new pay agreement with management.
Escondida produced just over 1 million mt of copper in cathode and concentrate last year and, prior to the strike, was expected to produced 1.25 million mt this year.
It is expected to take several weeks for production to return to capacity levels, suggesting the effect of the strike on Chilean copper production will extend well into the second quarter of the year.
Production during the first two months of the year totaled 828,983 mt, down 9.7% year on year.
Earlier this year, the Chilean Copper Commission forecast that Chile would produce 5.79 million mt of copper this year, a 4.3% increase from last year, although this now looks unlikely because of the strike.
