Chilean Codelco's copper production down 6% in February

Chilean state-owned mining company Codelco's February copper production fell 6% from a year earlier to 98,100 tons. The company is the world's top miner of the red metal, but has struggled to boost declining output in recent years.

Meanwhile, copper production at BHP's Escondida mine, the world's largest, rose 16% to 113,400 tons, Reuters reported.

At Collahuasi, another major red metal mine jointly operated by Glencore and Anglo American, output fell 62% to just 17,000 tons. Anglo American's head of Chile operations, Patricio Hidalgo, expects the mine to produce most of its planned copper output in the second half of the year. At the current stage, development of the site in 2025 will focus on minerals with lower concentrations of the red metal, he added.