Copper exports up 28% in July

Chile's copper exports totaled US$610.6mn in July, up 27.8% on US$477.7mn in same-month last year, the country's central bank reported. Total mining exports came in at US$696.8mn last month, 26.3% more than in July last year when the figure stood at US$551.7mn, the bank said in a regular statistics bulletin. The institute did not give a reason for the sharp rise in copper exports, but the giant Escondida copper mine in northern Chile's Region II completed a US$1.05bn expansion late last year. Escondida, the world's largest copper mine, is operated by Anglo-Australian mining house BHP Billiton (NYSE: BHP) and expects to produce 1.05Mt of the metal this year. Chile is the world's largest copper producer, accounting for around 35% of global output. It is forecast to turn out around 5.1Mt of the red metal in 2003.