SANTIAGO, Chile – BHP has reached a new collective labour agreement with the supervisors' union at its Escondida mine in northern Chile, defusing what had looked like an imminent strike at the world's largest copper mine. Members of Sindicato No. 2 de Supervisores y Staff approved the proposal by 64 percent, with 35 percent against, closing a bargaining round that had brought the operation to the brink of a stoppage.

The contract runs for 36 months, through 2029, and covers roughly 1,000 supervisors and professional staff. It improves fixed and variable compensation, strengthens existing benefits and introduces new bonuses; Chilean media valued the package at about 30 million pesos per worker. The union said the terms went beyond the offer BHP tabled on October 12, which had included final payments and a low-interest loan package worth approximately USD 30,000 per employee.

The agreement ended a dispute that had briefly placed one of the most important sources of copper supply in the world under threat. Government-mediated talks broke down on October 13, and the union, saying the company had walked away from the table, scheduled a walkout for the following morning. Roughly 95 percent of members had earlier rejected an initial final offer and voted in favour of industrial action. With warehouse inventories across the major exchanges already thin, the prospect of a halt at a mine so central to the global copper market had helped keep prices near record levels.

The settlement came at the end of a testing month for labour relations in Chile's copper sector. At Antofagasta Minerals' Centinela mine, some 709 workers from two unions walked out on October 7 over pay disparities between unions. The stoppage ran for ten days before members ratified a new contract on October 18 with 94.49 percent support, agreeing to a 24 million pesos end-of-term and renewal bonus alongside improvements in pay and benefits. Antofagasta said operations had continued throughout the strike.

The two resolutions matter well beyond the companies involved. Chile is the world's largest copper producer, and its output between January and August 2026 fell 7.7 percent year on year, a decline analysts attribute in part to ageing assets, falling grades and recurring labour friction. For BHP, the new contract secures three years of industrial calm at a mine that underpins its position among the world's largest copper producers. Across the Chilean industry, the settlements were a reminder that, for all the tension of the past weeks, negotiation has so far prevailed over confrontation.