Train loaded with copper ore and a bunch of empty sulfuric acid tankers along a narrow path through the Andes, up to the smelter at Potrerillos

SANTIAGO, Nov 8 (Reuters) – Chile's copper production from January to September this year jumped 7.3 percent from a year earlier, boosted by a sharp increase in production at BHP's Escondida copper mine.

Chile, the world's top copper exporter, produced 4.25 million tonnes of copper in the first nine months of 2018.

Escondida, in northern Chile, produced 950,900 tonnes through September, up 57.8 percent from the same period in 2017, when a strike shut down the mine for more than 40 days.

Production from state-run miner Codelco's deposits reached 1.29 million tonnes between January and September, a drop of 2 percent, with downturns at almost all its facilities.

The country's second-largest mine by output — Collahuasi, owned by Anglo American Plc and Glencore Plc — ramped up production by 5.8 percent to 401,800 tonnes.