The world's largest copper mine is located in the Atacama Desert, at an altitude of 3,000 meters in northern Chile and 1,200 kilometers from Santiago . Its name is Escondida . The suggestive name also conceals the intertwined nature of the immense fortunes of the large Anglo-Australian mining companies with copper production in Chile and also with the exploitation of this and other critical minerals in Latin America.
Escondida is operated by BHP Billiton , one of the world's largest mining companies. Its origin comes from the merger between the Australian Broken Hill Proprietary (BHP) and the British Billiton in 2001. It has a dual shareholding structure, since BHP Billiton Limited is listed on the Australian Securities Exchange , while BHP Billiton Plc is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is part of the Financial Times Stock Exchange ( FTSE 100) benchmark stock index. Also known as the Footsie, the London Stock Exchange index , comprising the 100 largest UK companies by market capitalization. Monitored by the Financial Times magazine, the FTSE 100 is a measure of the financial performance of companies regulated by British company law.
BHP Billiton Limited and BHP Billiton Plc operate as a single company with a single board and management structure. Its headquarters are in Melbourne, Australia, with offices in London, UK; Perth, Australia; Johannesburg, South Africa; Santiago, Chile; Singapore; Shanghai, China; Houston, USA; and The Hague, Netherlands.
With a wide range of mining operations in 25 countries , including iron ore, diamonds, manganese, coal (coking and thermal), copper, nickel, oil, zinc, and bauxite, this Anglo-Australian monopoly has a global workforce of around 40,000 .
5% of world copper production
Hidden represents 5% of global copper production . “Mining operator BHP has a 57.5% stake in the project, Rio Tinto 30%, and the remainder is held by Japanese interests. With “With 26 billion tonnes of copper resources at stake, Escondida has enough to keep producing for decades,” described Financial Review columnist Jennifer Hewett .
Chile produces 30% of the world's copper supply , and BHP Billiton accounts for a significant portion of that enormous global share thanks to Escondida and its two smaller copper mines in Pampa Norte: Spence (162 kilometers northeast of Antofagasta) and Cerro Colorado (120 kilometers east of Iquique). Another important fact is that BHP Billiton is Chile's largest taxpayer.
In addition, BHP Billiton holds a 50% stake in Samarco , a non-operating joint venture in Brazil. The company employs approximately 15,000 workers, directly and indirectly, producing iron ore pellets through its operating units in the states of Minas Gerais and Espírito Santo. It also operates in Peru under another non-operating joint venture at the Antamina mine, located in the Ancash region of the Andes Mountains in north-central Peru, 270 kilometers north of Lima. It extracts low-cost copper and zinc.
The Clinic reports that "unlike Rio Tinto's lithium ambitions, BHP has steered clear of major investments in Latin American lithium as a crucial mineral for future growth" and has focused all of its holdings on copper mining.
Escondida is a clear example of the alliances and the strong penetration that capital responding to British interests has in Chile and the region , reinforcing not only a commercial and industrial partnership but also a military presence that serves them in the global dispute that the Anglo-Yankee axis maintains with almost all the emerging countries that make up the BRICS, but fundamentally with the People's Republic of China.
Alliances that, in the case of Chile, the ruling classes and the subservient right wing accept and promote with a true colonial vocation, to the detriment and harm of the entire Chilean people.
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