Anglo American halts Los Bronces operations amid violent protests

25th Mar 2014 10:12

Anglo American's share price was trading higher on Tuesday despite the news that the mining giant has halted operations at its Los Bronces copper project in Chile due to violent protests by workers. The company said on Monday it had taken the action to suspend mining to guarantee the safety of its employees after contractors set tyres on fire, damaged infrastructure and looted during a demonstration over wage demands."The process of halting the mineral-processing plants has started, and once finished the evacuation of workers will begin, in so far as we have safety guarantees for the internal and external roads," the firm said.Los Bronces, Anglo's 50.1%-owned mine 65km from Santiago, contributes 35% of the group's attributable copper production. Analysts at Investec said that given that the copper division accounts for 22% of Anglo's total operating profits it would have an 8% negative impact at the group level if the disruptions lasted for the full year. However, the broker said: "Our analyst would expect only a negligible impact on earnings if this dispute with contractors gets resolved reasonably quickly."Anglo was trading 2.9% higher at 1, 482.11p by 10:24 on Tuesday.BC