Chile's copper mining industry will make a profit of 36.49 billion U.S. dollars in 2010, with an annual production of 14.4 percent more than last year, according to the latest Chile Mining Report released on Monday.

Chile's copper production was uninhibited by the major earthquake which devastated the central-southern part of the country, while most of the copper mines are located in the north.

However, the disaster has left the electricity supply system fragile and frequent power cuts have affected the copper production, yet insignificantly.

International concerns over copper supply pushed the red metal's price towards a dramtic hike right after the quake, but a price hike in copper futures eased quickly when it emerged that despite power disruptions affectiong 17 percent of copper output in Chile, production disruptions would be minimal, analysts say.

In March, 2010, the output of Chile's copper industry was 451,127 metric tonnes, up 5 percent in comparason with the same period of last year; the copper concentrate, grew 1.5 percent to reach a monthly production of 189,138 metric tonnes.

On the other hand, the copper cathode production decreased 0.7 percent in March.