Chilean state-owned copper producer Codelco believes restarting operations at its Chuquicamata smelter in late April is still feasible with ramp-up happening in the second half of May, although market participants are expecting it to resume in June or July.
"Now Codelco is taking care of [the construction of two sulfuric acid plants] and we believe we can deliver the first one by the end of April," the company's chief commercial officer Roberto Ecclefield told Fastmarkets in Santiago, Chile, this week. "We realize it's a tight schedule and there's big pressure on that, but we think it's possible." The smelter has been closed since mid-December for the building of new acid plants to comply with Chile's new environmental...