Rio, which published its mine-production report on Thursday, disclosed the drop ahead of BHP, the larger partner at Escondida. The production report came ahead of the big miners disclosing their financial results for the first half.
In the first six months of the year Rio’s share of copper production at Escondida, the Chilean mine that accounted for 7 per cent of global production last year, fell 23 per cent to 118,000 tonnes over the same period in 2010.
