Chile's state miner Codelco has abandoned a plan to raise this year's copper
output to 1.34 mln t from last year's revised 1.307 mln t and now expects
production to decline, sources said. The company ceded the world's top supplier
spot to BHP last year; another annual drop would compound decades of weak output
and soaring debt. Surging demand from data centers and electric vehicles is
increasing development difficulty and costs, and Codelco's efforts to reform
aging assets have shown little progress, underscoring broader industry supply
challenges.
