SANTIAGO – Employees at the Spence copper mine in northern Chile voted to accept the latest offer from Australia’s BHP Billiton and end a strike launched on Oct. 13, management and the union said on Monday.

Union chief Andres Ramirez said that the 560 workers will return to their jobs as soon as the new contract is drafted, a labor accord that will be in force for 41 months.

The firm said in a communique that the proposal accepted by the workers includes a 4 percent salary increase along with a bonus for the term of the labor conflict of 7.04 million pesos ($14,000) per worker and assorted additional benefits.

Among the additional benefits are an interest-free loan of 2 million pesos ($4,000) per worker, a home-buying bonus of 9.6 million pesos ($19,200) and the renewal of the so-called “exceptional workday” payment of 1.2 million pesos (about $2,400).

The resolution of the conflict came after the Chilean Mining Federation, which includes the unions, warned that it was prepared to expand the conflict to other BHP Billiton mines.

The Australian firm has three copper mines in Chile which in all produce about 1.5 million tons of the metal per year, almost 10 percent of the world production and which the strike reduced by about 20,500 tons.

Spence, located in the region of Antofagasta, some 1,500 kilometers (930 miles) from Santiago, produced 165,000 tons of refined copper in 2008 and originally the workers were demanding a salary hike of 5.5 percent.

The strike at Spence was resolved, however, after on the weekend state-owned miner Codelco reached an agreement with the workers in its Andina division, providing them with a salary increase of 3 percent in the coming years, along with an interest-free loan of 2.5 million pesos ($5,000) for each of its 1,202 employees.

In addition, the firm will give a bonus of 7.3 million pesos ($14,600) per worker.

Armando Olavarria, the general manager of the Andina division, said that the benefits are subject to production goals, productivity, the price of copper and production costs.

Business reporters said the cornerstone of the Codelco pact is a planned $900 million expansion that is expected to boost processing capacity at Andina by 25 percent, to 94,000 tons a day, and annual output from the current 220,000 tons to as much as 250,000 tons.

Chile is the world’s No. 1 producer and exporter of copper. EFE