Larco mining industry on brink of collapse

The Larco General Mining and Metallurgical Company is one step from closure, after entering receivership status in March to be sold to a private investor or declare bankruptcy.

The problematic state company suffers losses of $8,000 per ton of nickel output, and with a daily output of 15 tons, the company is posting losses of $120,000 every day.

However, it has been paying some of its employees salaries normally associated with profit-making multinationals: There have been cases of workers who received handouts if they worked on their leave days, while one person collected handouts both as a director and as a supervisor.