[miningmx.com] — CHILE’s state copper giant Codelco said on Wednesday it would decide in January whether to exercise an option to buy a 49% share stake in Anglo American Sur, pending market conditions.
Codelco said earlier on Wednesday it had secured a $6.75bn bridging loan from Japan’s Mitsui to finance the purchase, and said it was working on the basis it would in fact exercise the option.
Codelco said in a statement it can exercise its option in a 30-day window starting January 1. It also subscribed an annual sales contract of 30,000 tonnes of
fine copper a year with Mitsui along with the loan.
“If, as we currently anticipate, we exercise the option to buy, we expect to work closely with Anglo American, with whom we already have a mutually collaborative relationship in the Andina and Los Bronces mines,” Codelco CEO Diego Hernandez said
in the statement.
Hernandez said the option was a “very good investment opportunity” for Codelco, adding that price volatility that has seen a sharp sell-off for the red metal in recent weeks did not affect the company’s investment decisions.
Codelco passed up the option to take a stake in the Anglo American Sur properties, which include the Los Bronces and El Soldado mines, the Chagres smelter and Los Sulfatos and San Enrique Monolito exploration projects, in 2009.
Anglo American Sur is one of Anglo American’s three businesses in Chile.
Codelco said it had reached a second accord that gives it the right, but not the obligation, to pay off part of the loan extended by Mitsui via the sale of an indirect stake of half the shares in Anglo Sur acquired.
It said such a sale would be based on the 49% stake in Anglo American Sur’s shares being valued at around $9.76bn.
