Codelco maintains its US$ 2 billion investment plan for 2009Published: February 03, 2009
Through this economic plan, the Chilean government aims to generate more than 10,000 additional jobs for the mining industry. According to Mining Minister, Santiago González, Codelco is "making a great effort" to "maintain the labour force of its workers and contractors."
With this investment plan, Codelco is giving a signal of optimism to the market and to the mining unions, who declared themselves on alert after unemployment in the mining sector reached 15% (Canal 13).
The Minister met with union leaders and representatives of the Mining Council to address the issue. "As a ministry, we will make every effort to maintain stability in all sectors in which we participate", he added through the Ministry website.
Javier Cox, general manager of the Mining Council, told the same publication "the mining world shouldn't be alarmed", because this is a situation the industry has faced before. "Companies are reviewing their projects, but most of the projects that were listed should continue", he added.
This investment plan is a strong response from the government and Codelco to the effects of the global financial crisis. At the same time, the Chilean mining company also issued a US$ 600 million bond in the U.S. market, thus becoming the first Latin American company to register debt in the market since last July. Codelco is also the first mining company to place this kind of instrument in the last six months (El Mercurio Newspaper).
"Obtaining these funds amid the difficult market conditions we are experiencing is a demonstration of investors support for Codelco, and an expression of their confidence in the plans of the company", said Mario Espinoza, Vice President of Finance and Risk Management of Codelco.