SANTIAGO, April 18 (Reuters) - Chile's state-run copper

miner Codelco must focus on boosting its production, but it has

a global prestige that would not be tarnished if it cedes its

role as Chile's top producer to rival BHP, Mining

Minister Aurora Williams said on Thursday.

Codelco, the world's largest copper producer and a symbol of

national pride, is aiming this year to reverse two years of

falling production in a bid to not only boost profits but also

buttress Chile's sway over global markets.

That plan has been complicated as cost overruns and delays,

including accidents, have dogged maintenance and expansion

projects.

While Codelco met its first-quarter production target,

April's numbers likely will be "a little low," Williams said,

after a worker died in an accident at the company's Radomiro

Tomic mine, shuttering production for a few days.

Codelco produced 1.42 million metric tons of copper in 2023,

while the mines in Chile operated by Australian miner BHP,

including Escondida, the world's biggest copper mine that it

co-owns with Rio Tinto and Japan's JECO Corp,

produced 1.39 million tons.

The 50-year-old Codelco accounts for about a quarter of

total copper output in Chile.

"I don't think that just one element - production - could at

some point detract from Codelco's prestige," Williams told

Reuters in an interview, when asked about the potential fallout

of Codelco being displaced by BHP. "Outside Chile, to talk about

Codelco is to talk about a benchmark in mining."

President Gabriel Boric on Wednesday told nearly 2,000

attendees at a major copper industry conference that he expected

Codelco's output to rebound this year.

Williams said she was also supportive of BHP boosting

production, noting that Escondida alone produces more than 1

million tons of copper a year.

"This is more than a competition. It's about producing

responsibly and developing the mining sector," she said.

Along with that goal, Chile aims to support new projects

through faster permitting processes, and wants to boost

production of the battery metal lithium, which is currently only

extracted by two companies in the country.

Saudi Arabia's embassy in Santiago approached the ministry

about hosting a delegation from the Middle Eastern country later

this year to discuss potential investments in Chile's mining

sector, said Rodrigo Urquiza, the ministry's head of

international affairs.

Williams declined to be more specific about which metals

could be of interest to Saudi Arabia.

NEW TECHNOLOGIES

On lithium, Williams said that the Boric administration had

no plans to mandate a specific type of direct lithium extraction

(DLE) technology for private companies that aims to extract the

battery metal from the country's salt flats.

Boric last year announced an ambitious plan to phase out

evaporation ponds, traditionally used to remove the metal from

brine, and require the use of DLE across the country, which has

the world's largest lithium reserves.

"For us, it's implicit that lithium development has to come

with new technologies," Williams said.

She unveiled a process earlier this week to solicit private

interest in development of the country's salt flats. As part of

the application process, the ministry is asking applicants what

type of DLE they would use.

"There is no single recipe here, because the salt flats are

different," she said.