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UPDATE 1-Chile copper mines reopen after strike proposal
(Updates with Teniente reopening)
SANTIAGO, May 3 (Reuters) - Chile's Codelco reopened the world's largest underground copper mine on Saturday as subcontractor miners analyzed a government proposal aimed at ending a sometimes violent two-week strike that hit output.
State-owned Codelco first closed its giant Teniente division earlier this week after workers were injured by subcontractor violence.
It said its Andina division, first shut 18 days ago during the latest in a series of strikes by subcontracted miners demanding a bigger share of windfall profits and improved working conditions, also was partially back at work.
Its smaller Salvador division remained shut.
"The shift has started (at Teniente). We are back in operation," a Codelco source said on condition of anonymity. "Both full-time and subcontractors went to work."
Arturo Martinez, head of the CUT, Chile's largest umbrella workers union, said on Friday that the government had made a proposal to end the strike, but he gave no details.
Union leaders are now studying it.
Government spokesman Francisco Vidal says the proposal centers on Codelco and the subcontractors fulfilling a series of agreements reached last year, among them a pledge by Codelco to absorb some subcontractors into its full-time ranks.
With global copper markets already nervous about low inventories, the strike helped keep copper prices near record highs of about $4 per pound.
Codelco, which produces around 1.7 million tonnes of copper a year, said on Tuesday it had lost about 19,000 tonnes of production due to the strike, or around $100 million in losses.
Andina, about 50 miles (80 km) northeast of the Chilean capital, produced 218,000 tonnes of copper in 2007. Salvador, 685 miles (1,100 km) north of Santiago, produced 64,000 tonnes of copper last year.
Teniente, 50 miles (80 km) south of Santiago, produced 405,000 tonnes of copper last year. Codelco's Norte and Ventanas divisions have run normally throughout the strike. (Reporting by Manuel Farias; Writing by Simon Gardner; Editing by Xavier Briand)
