Reuters quoted an executive of Grupo Mexico as saying that Mexican copper output will rise about 5% in 2010 from last year to 250,000 tonnes.

Mr Xavier Garcia de Quevedo head of the company's mining division said that Mexican output will be 250,000 tonnes, not including anything from Cananea. Mexico produced 238,400 tonnes of copper in 2009 according to the national mining chamber. Grupo Mexico's massive Cananea mine has been shut for nearly 3 years due to a labor dispute.

Mr Garcia de Quevedo said that the company recently won a legal ruling against the strike, which started in July 2007 over health and safety concerns, but the union has refused to end the occupation of the facility. The impasse at Cananea is holding up USD 5 billion in investments planned by Grupo Mexico there and at its El Arco project in Baja California. Once is resolved, we'll have the basis to start up the El Arco project as well. The USD 2 billion El Arco project was expected to start production in 2012 with a capacity to produce 190,000 tonnes of copper.

He said that Cananea has industrial facilities that process copper mined at other sites and El Arco would likely send some of its raw material to the massive complex near the US Mexico border. The strike is also holding up a USD 3 billion expansion project at Cananea that would lift output there from 190,000 tonnes a year to 460,000 tonnes when complete. The two projects, if built, would turn Mexico into the world's second largest copper producer, but could not give a forecast for when Cananea might reopen.

(Sourced from Reuters)