Copper exports up 18% in October

Chile exported US$699mn worth of copper in October, up 17.6% from US$594mn in same-month 2002, the country's central bank reported. Total mining exports came in at US$797mn last month, 19% more than US$668mn in October last year, the bank said in a regular bulletin. In the year to date, copper exports have risen 14.5% to US$6.02bn and mining exports as a whole are up 14.3% to 6.79bn, according to the report. Chile is the world's largest copper producer, and is expected to turn out just over 5Mt of the red metal this year.