Two mines still shut in 12th day of Chile copper strike

SANTIAGO, April 27 (Reuters) - Two mines remained shut on Sunday in the 12th day of a sometimes violent subcontractors strike at Codelco, the world's largest copper producer, a company source said.

The protests that began on April 16, closed Codelco's Salvador and Andina divisions from the start and its giant underground Teniente division, 50 miles (80 km) south of Santiago, was shut off and on in the past week after full-time staff said they would not work until Codelco resolved violent protests that saw at least two of their members injured.

"Andina and Salvador are still shut," a company source said.

Teniente was reopened on Saturday.

The subcontractors strike is costing Codelco at least $10 million a day in lost output and hurting the image of the state-owned copper miner.

The strikes are the latest in a series of protests by subcontractors over the past two years to demand a bigger share of windfall revenue because prices have jumped nearly seven-fold this decade.

The strike at Codelco, which produces about 1.7 million tonnes of copper per year, has pushed global copper prices to near-record highs of about $4 per pound as markets grow nervous about inventories that are already stretched thin. (Reporting by Pav Jordan, editing by Maureen Bavdek)