Chilean state company Codelco became the first copper miner in the world to register its products before the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) in order to meet its obligations under the EU's REACH regulation, which deals with the registration, evaluation, authorization and restriction of chemical substances, the company said in a release. With the move, which was conducted through the European Copper Institute, Codelco aims at securing regulatory approval for its products entering the EU market.

According to the REACH regulation, the first stage was to pre-register substances prior to January 2009. Codelco is currently at the second stage of the process, with its registered products to be analyzed and evaluated to set their risk assessment. Those companies not complying with stage two of the process will not be allowed to sell their products in the European market starting January 1, 2011.

Products registered by Codelco included high-grade copper metal (99.9%), another 16 copper derivates and two substances that are not yet produced and which are molybdenum and rhenium byproducts. The company said that after registration, which occurred on January 27, the European agency would spend six months evaluating the items and then approve or reject the products from entering the EU.