By Anthony Esposito
SANTIAGO (Reuters) - Heavy rains in central Chile have prompted global miner Anglo American Plc (L:AAL) and state-owned producer Codelco to suspend operations at two major copper mines with combined annual capacity of 880,000 tonnes.
Any new outages will be keenly watched by copper investors as the market suffers its longest crisis in more than a decade amid concerns about oversupply, as demand from top consumer China slows.
Natural disasters in Chile, the world's top copper exporter, have crimped output. The torrential downpours during the weekend follow a September 2015 earthquake and March 2015 flooding, which also caused disruption.
The rains battering central Chile left an estimated 4 million people without drinking water as landslides wreaked havoc and rivers breached their banks, leaving at least one person dead and another seven missing.
Anglo American told Reuters on Sunday that it had suspended mining activities at its flagship Los Bronces copper mine and the smaller El Soldado deposit for security reasons following the unusually strong storm.
The company said its processing plants still were partially operating using stockpiled material.
Meanwhile, world No.1 copper producer Codelco said late on Saturday it had suspended production at its century-old underground El Teniente mine, likely leading to the loss of 5,000 tonnes of copper production.
The rains caused landslides, prompted waterways to breach their banks and damaged transportation infrastructure for personnel and minerals at El Teniente.
"Work to restore basic services and systems in order to restart production is estimated to take at least three days, equivalent to production of 5,000 tonnes of fine copper," Codelco said.
All of Codelco's other operations are operating normally, including its Andina mine, which borders Los Bronces, the company said.
Antofagasta Plc's (L:ANTO) Los Pelambres copper mine, some 240 kilometers northeast of capital Santiago, was operating normally.
The majority of Chile's copper mines are in the desert north, which has not been affected by the bad weather.