A top Peruvian mining official said on Thursday Peru had no plans to form a copper industry cartel with neighbour Chile, the world's largest producer of the red metal.
Copper prices have fallen 60 percent from record highs in July last year, turning many previously powerful copper companies on their heads as demand for the metal slumped in the global economic crisis.
"No, there is no such plan (for a cartel) at this moment," deputy mine minister Juan Felipe Isasi told reporters in Junin, 125 miles (200 km) east of the capital Lima in the Peruvian Andes.
His comments come after reports in the local and international media that Chile, the world's top copper producer, and No. 2 producer Peru could form a cartel in the style of the OPEC oil producing countries.
"There might be coordination (of policies) among copper producing countries to study industry issues to study whether some joint action could be taken, but it would be difficult to control international prices," Isasi added.
In Chile, some mine workers have called for No. 1 copper producer Codelco, a state company, to control copper shipments to the market to help bolster the price.
Source: Reuters
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