The group's copper operations generated an operating profit of US$2.01bn in 2009, out of a total US$4.96bn. The copper branch registered the group's best performance in the period.

"This is the good thing of being part of a diversified resources group," Mackenzie said during the press conference held to discuss Anglo American Chile's results during 2009. "When one commodity unit has problems, there is another one able to offset those results. In this case, copper did it great in 2009."

Anglo American Chile posted net earnings after taxes of US$1.72bn in 2009, a 6% increase compared to US$1.62bn registered the previous year. The better results were mainly due to increased copper production, reduced costs and savings of US$234mn as part of asset optimization programs, Anglo American Chile CEO Miguel Ángel Durán said during the press conference.

Durán added that tax payments for 2009 operations totaled US$534mn.

Investment last year amounted to US$926mn, up 22% from US$756mn in 2008, mainly due to development expenditures on the expansion project at the Los Bronces copper mine in central Chile.

Anglo American Chile also registered record production of 669,814t in 2009, including 176,353t of cathodes and 487,944t in concentrates. The figure represented an increase of 5% compared to 638,792t in 2008.

The largest increase came from the company's 44% owned Collahuasi mine in northern Chile, which produced 535,000t, a 15% increase compared to 2008, of which 235,775t corresponded to the company's stake.

Production at Anglo American's fully owned Los Bronces and Mantos Blancos operations rose to 238,423t and 90,153t in 2009, respectively. Output at Mantoverde remained stable at 61,515t, while production at El Soldado decreased to 41,365t due to lower grades. Production at the Chagres smelter totaled 137,652t of anodes, down from 146,144t.

Durán added that a prefeasibility study should be ready by 2014 on the recently discovered Los Sulfatos and San Enrique Monolito copper deposits close to Los Bronces, adding further expansion potential to the mine.

The roughly US$2.3bn-2.5bn expansion project underway at Los Bronces is expected to be operating by 4Q11, increasing the mine's production to an average of 400,000t/y during the first 10 years.