Mercuria eyes equity in African assets, new metals boss says
“You will see us very present in Africa and putting our money where our mouth is in respect of the Copperbelt,” Kostas Bintas said.
Codelco had its credit rating cut two notches by S&P Global Ratings as an output slump prompts the world’s largest copper producer to raise debt levels for project funding.
The Chilean state-owned miner’s long-term foreign currency rating was downgraded to BBB+ from A, S&P said Wednesday. It follows recent cuts by Fitch Ratings and Moody’s Investors Service.
Codelco’s production levels are at the lowest in a quarter century while costs have surged. Management is battling to bring late and over-budget projects on stream to counter that slump, embarking on a $40 billion overhaul of its aging mines.
“We now expect Codelco will use more debt in 2024 than we previously expected,” S&P analysts led by Diego Ocampo wrote. “We also don’t expect capitalization from the owner or any other sort of alleviation at this point.”
S&P’s outlook for Codelco is stable given the very high likelihood of government support in an event of financial distress.
(By James Attwood)
Read More: Codelco to spend $720 million on Chuquicamata copper mine
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