LMEWEEK-Chile has no plan to raise Codelco funding for now - minister

LONDON, Oct (HKSE: 3366-OL.HK - news) 12 (Reuters) - Chile's government is not planning to give any more money to state-run copper producer Codelco for now, having already pledged $4 billion until 2020, its mining minister told Reuters on Monday.

"At the moment what is important is that Codelco is sufficiently capitalised from year to year," Mining Minister Aurora Williams said. "Over the five years the amount cannot exceed $4 billion, since this is what is established in a law passed by the Chilean congress."

Williams said she expected some producers to exit the market, a move that will boost copper prices.

"We are not going to return to prices seen during the super cycle, the recovery will be slow. We hope that by the first quarter of 2017 the copper price will rebound to an average of $2.5 (a pound)."

Williams said Chile's copper output was expected to be steady at 5.8 million tonnes this year, rising by 3.8 percent in 2016.

(Reporting by Olivia Kumwenda-Mtambo and Angus Berwick; editing by Susan Thomas)