'Fragile' Chile power supply may affect copper production

The Chilean government warned that the nation's power supply will be fragile for at least the next six months and more blackouts like that on Sunday night may occur.

Chile's copper mining companies have been offering assurances that their power supplies in the northern part of the country are far from the center of the magnitude 8.8 earthquake, but Mineweb correspondent Dorothy Kosich is warning that "shaky, blackout-prone energy supplies could impact many medium-sized mines in Chile and reinforce world market concerns about supply disruptions in a country that mines one-third of the world's copper."   [right, Candelaria mine. Credit, Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold]

That would have big impacts for Arizona which produces 65% of copper used in the U.S.