Chilean Copper Used to Restore Vatican Railway Station

Thursday: May 16, 2002

EMOL - (El Mercurio Online)

SANTIAGO - A "historic milestone for the country and the Chilean mining industry" were the words used by Mining Council President William Hayes to describe the restoration of the Vatican's internal railway station building using Chilean copper.

"We, as the Mining Council, feel that the use of Chilean copper to restore the roofs of the train station is a demonstration of the importance of copper on an international level. For this reason, we are extremely proud of the work carried out by all of the institutions that participated in this important initiative, among them the Chilean mining companies, who with great generosity donated the copper to restore this building," he commented.

They have maintained that the former is the culmination of a long process of technical studies carried out to satisfy the Vatican requirements for restoring the roof of the train terminal.

This initiative first began in December 2000 when the President of the Republic, Ricardo Lagos, offered Pope John Paul II the donated copper for the replacement and restoration of Vatican buildings. Later, in October of last year, a technical commission was sent to the Holy See to analyze the materialization of this project, which was finalized with the start of the work in May.

The companies that assisted the Mining Council in donating the copper include Codelco, Disputada de las Condes, Doña Inés de Collahuasi, Escondida, Los Pelambres, Noranda, Phelps Dodge, Quebrada Blanca y Zaldívar.

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