VANCOUVER, Jan 23 (Reuters) - Teck Resources TECKb.TO has held talks with fellow miner Anglo American Plc AAL.L about sharing port infrastructure at their neighboring copper mines in Chile, Teck's chief executive officer said on Monday, arguing for more industry partnerships.
Sharing infrastructure between Teck's Quebrada Blanca copper mine and Anglo's Collahausi copper mine, both of which are weighing expansions, would help reduce costs for both companies as well as reduce their environmental footprint, Teck CEO Don Lindsay said.
"They are looking at expansion. We are too. We are building two ports 5 kilometers (3 miles) apart. This is ridiculous," Lindsay said, speaking at a mining conference in Vancouver.
"We've got to stop doing that as an industry," he said, adding that host countries appreciate miners working together to reduce their environmental impact.
There are clusters of ore bodies all over the world owned by different companies but well suited for joint development, Lindsay said.
Teck, which also mines coal and gold, formed a joint venture with fellow Vancouver-based gold producer, Goldcorp G.TO in 2015 to jointly develop their neighboring mines, Relincho and El Morro, which are also in Chile.
Lindsay said he had spoken with Anglo CEO Mark Cutifani about sharing infrastructure.
"We'll sort something out," he said.
Last week, Goldcorp CEO David Garofalo said the world's biggest gold miners need to forge partnerships to share the financial and other risks of developing large gold deposits.