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| - Chilean state mining company Codelco, the world's biggest producer of copper, said on Thursday it was temporarily closing a major foundry and refinery in northern Chile, an area badly hit by the coronavirus pandemic. The state company said the decision to close the Chuquicamata operations was taken "as a preventative measure and given the complex situation in the Antofagasta region and the city of Calama due to the COVID-19 health emergency." Codelco made the announcement after reporting the third death of one of its workers from COVID-19. The Antofagasta region was put back under lockdown on Tuesday following a spike in coronavirus cases took the area past 7,500, alongside 122 deaths. "This new initiative is a proactive action to tackle the next few difficult weeks that we face as a country, society and Chuquicamata," said Nicolas Rivera, the plant's general manager. Chile is currently one of the global epicenters of the coronavirus pandemic, with more than 260,000 cases and almost 5,000 confirmed deaths alongside another 7,000 "probable" ones. Codelco producers 11 percent of the world's copper and the Chuquicamata mine churned out 385,000 tons of the metal in 2019. On Saturday, Codelco had said it was suspending projects in the north of Chile and that its Chuquicamata mine would operate only using personnel from Calama, where it is located, to reduce the number of people moving around and potentially increasing the risk of spreading the virus. Copper mining was allowed to continue throughout the coronavirus crisis in Chile, which recorded its first case on March 3. The sector contributes close to 10 percent of Chile's GDP with the South American country producing almost a third of global copper, with 5.6 million tons a year. msa/pa/lda/bc/caw/
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