La Nina threatens copper mining in Chile

Chile faces an energy crisis that threatens copper mining – its economic mainstay – as hydroelectric dams gasp over the worst drought in 100 years and natural gas supplies are cut off in the mineral-rich north.

Drought conditions in central Chile brought on by La Nina – a cooling of the eastern equatorial waters of the Pacific – mean that hydroelectric reservoirs are at dangerously low levels, forcing the Government to declare contingency measures, such as energy conservation in public buildings.