Workers from two unions at Antofagasta’s Centinela copper mine in northern Chile have ratified a new collective bargaining agreement, ending a strike of more than a week. More than 700 members of the Distrito Centinela and Minera Esperanza unions walked out on October 7 after contract talks broke down, seeking equal benefits for workers regardless of union membership. The parties returned to the negotiating table last Tuesday, and 94.49 percent of participating workers voted to approve the proposed agreement, the unions said in a statement confirmed by the company on Sunday.
Shanghai Metals Market reported the new agreement runs for three years and that the strike ended without a disclosed loss of molybdenum output. Three workers had been on hunger strike during the deadlock, according to Reuters.
Antofagasta said it maintained production at normal levels during the strike, avoiding any negative impact at a mine that produced 240,400 tonnes of copper in 2025. That claim matters for the market read: the Centinela stoppage, together with the ultimately unrealised risk of a supervisors strike at BHP’s Escondida, had been supporting global copper prices on concern about the industry’s ability to lift supply. With Centinela settled and no tonnage lost, that support now fades, and copper’s next move depends on demand and on the remaining Chilean labour calendar rather than on this dispute.
Jurisdiction watch: Chile’s 2026 bargaining round has so far resolved without the extended stoppages that marked earlier cycles. A three year term at Centinela takes one of the country’s larger copper operations out of the strike window until 2029.