(Adds union statement about detained workers and suspension oftalks) By Natalia A. Ramos Miranda and Fabian Cambero SANTIAGO, June 22 (Reuters) - Workers at Chilean state-ownedmining giant Codelco, the world's largest copper producer,launched a major strike on Wednesday to protest the closure of asmelter over environmental issues, though the governmentdownplayed the impact on operations. The Federation of Copper Workers (FTC), an umbrella group ofCodelco's unions, said 50,000 workers were expected to strike,including staff and contractors after the Ventanas smelter wasshuttered despite calls for investment to keep it open. "We already have all divisions stopped today," AmadorPantoja, the union's president told Reuters. "We're going towait calmly in the morning to see if there's a chance to talk." The government and the company, however, moved quickly todispel concerns over an impact to operations. "There is no stoppage of mining sites," Finance MinisterMario Marcel said at a news conference, hours after the strikestarted. "Therefore the impact on financial income is basicallyzero." Andre Sougarret, Codelco's interim chief executive, saidthere has been "some discontinuity" regarding operations, butthe company was able to take steps to resume them. "Since this was announced, we took steps to, first of all,guarantee people's safety and, on the other hand, continueoperations," Sougarret said. Later in the day, the FTC said protest leaders had beendetained by police forces while protesting outside of thecompany's El Teniente mine. "Due to these regretful incidents, we're suspending anyattempt at talks with Codelco's upper administration andactively continue with our National Strike," the FTC said in astatement.
Codelco's board of directors approved the closure of theVentanas smelter last week after it had been suspended formaintenance after dozens in the region fell ill. The decisionwas later backed by Chilean President Gabriel Boric. The facility also operates a copper refinery, which will notbe affected by the measure. Workers had warned last week they would strike ifinvestments to upgrade the facility were not approved andinsisted on Tuesday the company should upgrade the smelter. The area the smelter is located in is saturated withindustrial operations that environmental activists havedescribed as a "sacrifice zone" due to pollution incidents. (Reporting by Fabian Cambero and Natalia Ramos; Writing bySteven Grattan and Alexander Villegas; Editing by ChizuNomiyama, Jonathan Oatis and Marguerita Choy)
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