Codelco chief says Anglo American risks future investments in Chile

Global miner Anglo American has risked its future in the world’s largest copper producing nation by denying Chile’s state-owned Codelco a 49 percent stake in its Sur unit, said Diego Hernandez, Codelco’s chief executive on Thursday.

Miguel Angel Durán, president of Anglo American’s Chilean operations, told a Chilean newspaper that the company wants to sit down with Codelco, the Chilean state mining company, and find a way to avoid years of litigation over Anglo’s Chilean assets. The copper giant is putting together a crack team of lawyers and financial advisers from Chile and New York to fight Anglo’s attempt to block it from exercising an option to buy half of Anglo’s Chilean copper assets for $6 billion. Anglo early in November sold 24.5% to Mitsubishi for $5.4 billion.

We think the best way is to sit down and talk to Codelco. The best way of understanding the differences we have is to talk about them and we ought to be capable of reaching an agreement and becoming partners. We are in the process of starting or having these contacts with Codelco. We hope that this week doesn’t end without having contact with Codelco.

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