Chile produced 460,064 mt of copper in January, marking a drop of 4.5% from the same month of last year, according to government figures.
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Register Now The figure also marked a drop of 17.5% from record monthly output of 557,780 mt in the previous month of December.
Statistics agency INE attributed the decline to lower throughput and ore grades at some of the country's largest copper mines.
Chile is the world's leading producer of the red metal, producing a record 5.831 million mt last year.
Earlier this month, the Chilean Copper Commission forecast that Chilean copper production will rise 1.9% this year to 5.941 million mt.
The government agency said that the increase in output would come principally from state copper company Codelco, the world's largest producer, and BHP's Spence mine, which suffered from a fire in its SX-EW facility in 2018.
Meanwhile, production of molybdenum at Chilean copper mines rose to 5,144 mt in January, up 8.5% from 12 months earlier. The metal, used in steel production, is a key byproduct at several of Chile's large copper mines and its second largest mineral export after copper.
Production of gold rose in January by 17.1% to 2,914 kilograms, while production of silver rose 14.6% to 97,451 kg.
