The breaking news this week is that Chile’s Escondida mine operator BHP has announced it looks like a strike has been averted and that a settlement plan is being put to the workers. That is good news for a market widely expected to go into deficit this year, according to Mining.com. But the prospect of a strike was all that was holding up the copper price, which promptly fell 5% on the news, touching a low of $2.55 a pound ($5,622 a metric ton) in New York and down more than 20% from a nearly four-year high struck a little over two months ago, according to Mining.com. Production in the world’s largest copper ... (full story)