(MB) Unionized workers at Codelco’s Chuquicamata, the world’s largest open pit copper mine, have threatened strikes in protest against plans to develop underground mining there and ensuing layoffs. Chuquicamata general manager Mauricio Barazza informed workers last April that 1,700 people, 36% of the mine’s workforce, would be asked to leave the company during the mine’s transition to an underground project.