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Copper miner Antofagasta gets its wires in a twist

Antofagasta owns four mines in Chile, including Los Pelambres near Los Caimanes, and employs 6,200 staff in total
Antofagasta owns four mines in Chile, including Los Pelambres near Los Caimanes, and employs 6,200 staff in total
VICTOR RUIZ CABALLERO/REUTERS

The world is being electrified — and that means it needs more copper. Whether it is homes being wired up in developing markets, subsea links being built to trade renewable power across Europe, or the much-vaunted electric vehicle revolution (each car requiring four times as much copper as a conventional one), it all points to a long-term need for more of the metal (Emily Gosden writes).

Step forward Antofagasta. The company, which listed in London in 1888 to build a railway from Chile to Bolivia, now operates four copper mines in Chile with about 6,200 staff and 15,000 contractors.

It is the only “pure-play” copper producer in the FTSE 100 (though its mines also produce gold, silver and molybdenum as by-products, and it retains