Chile's copper output falls again on lower grades

Chilean copper production fell for the second consecutive month in May.

Output was down 6.8% year-on-year to 473,825t during the month, the country's national statistics bureau (INE) said in a report. However, production grew 9.6% compared to 432,277t in April.

INE attributed the decline to lower ore grades.

In the first five months of the year output was down 5.1% year-on-year to 2.30Mt.

Chile's mining production index dropped 5.7% year-on-year in May, driven by lower copper output, as well as less molybdenum, iron ore, salt, caliche, oil, coal, gold and ulexite, which was partly offset by higher output of lithium, calcium carbonate and silver.

Production of unroasted molybdenum concentrate was down 5.6% in May to 4,597t, while output for the first five months of 2016 was up 26.6% to 23,718t.

May gold output was down 1.8% due to lower recovery rates as a byproduct of copper production. Silver production was up 18.8% compared with May 2015, on higher recovery rates.

The metallic mining index fell 6.4% in May, while the non-metallic index was up 16.5%.