UPDATE: Chile Collahuasi Hopeful Some Striking Workers Will Return

As the industrial action at Chilean copper mine Dona Ines de Collahuasi entered its 15th day Friday, management is hopeful that some workers will break away from the strike and return to work.

Earlier this week, the mine presented an improved wage and benefits offer to tempt unionized strikers to negotiate individually and go back to work, which local labor laws allow starting with the 15th strike day.

"We've seen a lot of interest from workers regarding our offer," Collahuasi spokeswoman Bernardita Fernandez said.

While she declined to specify how many strikers had returned to work, she said many had broken the strike.

"The number of workers that has returned to work, to date, is substantially larger than what the number the union says," she said.

The union, meanwhile, vowed the strike will continue and claimed only a handful of workers have ended their strike and returned to work.

"The company's offer is just a rouse to break up the only union at the mine," the Collahuasi union's president, Manuel Munoz, said.

As to production, the company maintains that output is normal as a result of a contingency plan, while the union counters that Collahuasi is only operating at 20% of capacity.

Diversified mining companies Xstrata PLC (XTA.LN) and Anglo American PLC (AAUKY, AAL.LN) each hold a 44% stake in Collahuasi. A consortium led by Mitsui & Co. (MITSY, 8031.TO) holds the remaining 12%.

Collahuasi, one of the world's largest copper mines, is located 185 kilometers southeast of the port of Iquique, high in the Andes mountains at 4,400 meters above sea level. It produces about 500,000 metric tons of copper a year, or about 10% of Chile's annual output.

Chile is the world's leading copper producer, accounting for about 35% of global output.

-By Carolina Pica, Dow Jones Newswires; 56-2-715-8919; carolina.pica@dowjones.com

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