Lundin reaches new wage deal with copper miners in Chile

Lundin Mining Corp. [LUN-TSX; LUMI-Sweden] said it has reached a new agreement with the union at its Caserones copper mine in Chile. The company said the agreement has been accepted by the majority of union members through a vote.

Lundin also said it expects a new collective bargaining agreement will be signed imminently, and it will now focus on a safe back to work plan and an efficient ramp-up of operations, which have been running at approximately 50% capacity during the labour action.

Lundin shares advanced on the news, rising 1.3% or 18 cents to $14.14. The shares currently trade in a 52-week range of $17.97 and $8.18.

In a press release on August 12, 2024, the company said one of the three unions representing approximately 30% of the Caserones employees, or 5.0% of the total workforce at Caserones had taken job action.

Lundin Mining is a diversified Canadian base metals company with operations and projects in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Portugal and Sweden and the U.S., primarily producing copper, zinc, gold and nickel.

Lundin was in the news recently when it announced that it and BHP Billiton Ltd. [BHP-NYSE] have struck a deal to acquire Filo Mining Corp. [FIL-TSX, NASDAQ First North] via a court-approved plan of arrangement that is valued at $33 per Filo share or $4.1 billion.

Prior to the announcement, the Lundin Family Trusts owned a 33% stake in Filo Mining, while BHP held 6.0%.

Filo’s key asset is the 100%-owned Filo del Sol (FDS) project, a high-sulphidation epithermal copper-gold-silver deposit associated with one or more large porphyry gold systems. Filo del Sol is located in the Andes Mountains, 140 kilometres southeast of the Chilean city of Copiapo, and is ranked as one of the world’s largest undeveloped copper-silver-gold deposits.

Caserones is an open pit copper-molybdenum mine which produces high-quality copper concentrate, copper cathode and molybdenum concentrate. Lundin Mining is the operator, holding a 51% interest in Minera Lumina Copper Chile, while JX Metals Corp. holds the remaining 49%. Lundin acquired its ownership from JX Metals in 2023.

Lundin said the acquisition of a majority interest in the Caserones mine led to a record annual copper production in 2023.

Caserones is located in Chile’s Atacama region, approximately 125 kilometres south of Copiapo, and approximately 100 kilometres from Lundin Mining’s Candelaria Copper Mining Complex in Chile and 20 kilometres from the company’s Josemaria project in Argentina.

Lundin has said it expected Caserones to produce (on a 100% bass) 124,000 to 135,000 tonnes of copper in 2024 and between 2,500 and 3,000 tonnes of molybdenum. Cash costs were expected to range between US$2.60 a pound and US$2.80.

The processing facilities have been in commercial production since 2014 and have historically produced approximately 100,000 to 120,000 tonnes of copper in concentrate and 1,700 to 2,500 tonnes of molybdenum in concentrate and approximately 25,000 tonnes of copper cathodes annually.