Business News Americas cited Mr Lázaro Lizama union leader of Altonorte as saying that labor negotiations coming up at Xstrata's Altonorte copper smelter in Chile could turn out rocky since the union's demands appear to be far from what the company will offer.

Mr Lizama said that "Judging by what the company has said so far, the outlook unfortunately does not appear to be good."

He said that the company has said it would offer only an inflation adjustment to wages while the union will ask for more. However, we hope there will be cordial conversations with the company once official negotiations begin. Labor contracts at Altonorte expire December 18th 2009 and the union will present its pay requests on November 4th 2009.

The company produced 212,173 tonnes of copper in the Q3 down 9.57% with respect to the year ago period. In Chile Xstrata also owns the Lomas Bayas copper mine and 44% of Collahuasi.

(Sourced from Business News Americas)