Chile copper production: Totals are up, Codelco's down

Chile's copper beancounters Cochilco released five month totals for copper production in Chile today (Jan thru May) and the most interesting thing is how Chile's state-run company, Codelco (world's biggest single copper producer) saw its production drop by 7.5% compared to the same period of 2011, while the overall total rose by 1.5%. In other words, the privately owned big copper mines are taking up the slack. You want charts on it? Yeah sure thing! This is IKN after all:

Here's the country total (incl private companies and Codelco):

Here's Codelco alone:

And here's the private company total (i.e. grand total minus Codelco total):

See a trend? Yup me too and in one oversimple sentence, Codelco's ageing and depleting mines with dropping grades are the story here.