Chile copper rail union says talks to resume

SANTIAGO, Chile, Dec 14 (Reuters) - Striking workers at Chilean rail company FCAB, which serves some of the world's top copper producers, expected to resume talks with the company later Wednesday, a week after walking off the job, a union official said.

"We are going to meet today," Guillermo Gonzalez, president of the cargo workers union at FCAB, told Reuters. "Hopefully, we will have a positive result."

Some 365 unionized cargo workers at FCAB, which serves several copper giants, including No. 1 copper producer Codelco, a state-owned company, and Escondida, owned by global mining leader BHP Billiton , have been on strike since last Wednesday after failing to reach a new salary deal with the company.

FCAB, a part of the Chilean mining company Antofagasta Plc , says the strike has not affected copper supply.

Codelco is the world's largest copper miner and Chile is the largest global producer of the red metal, so world markets are sensitive to any potential disruptions in supply.

Benchmark March futures at the COMEX division of the New York Mercantile Exchange fell 5.65 cents, or 2.8 percent, after the news, to $1.9700 a lb.

"Things are getting better in terms of dialogue," Gonzalez said by telephone. "A strike doesn't benefit anybody."

FCAB, or Ferrocarril de Antofagasta a Bolivia, operates in mineral-rich northern Chile, where the Zaldivar mine, owned by Canada's Placer Dome , is also located.

The company, which has operated for more than 100 years without a shutdown, implemented a contingency plan when the strike began last week to guarantee shipments of copper and sulfuric acid.

A spokesman for Codelco, whose massive Codelco Norte operations are serviced by FCAB, told Reuters its copper deliveries had not been affected by the strike.

The spokesman also said that if the copper rail transports were to be interrupted, the company would shift to trucks to deliver the red metal.

According to the plan, 62 percent of copper cathodes are being shipped through the port at Antofogasta, and 38 percent through the port at Angamos, both in northern Chile.

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