(China Daily)
Updated: 2007-07-10 11:18

Aluminum Corp of China (Chinalco), one of the world's leading producers of both aluminum and alumina, has offered to buy Peru Copper Inc, headquartered in Vancouver, Canada, for around $790 million.

"We have made an offer to purchase all the outstanding common shares of Peru Copper for C$6.6 ($6.27) per share in cash," Xiao Yaqing, president of Chinalco told China Daily in an exclusive interview yesterday.

"Concurrent with the announcement of our intention to make the offer, we agreed to invest C$70 million ($66.5 million) to subscribe to a 9.9 percent interest in Peru Copper at a price of C$5.3 per share, " he said.

Peru Copper is listed in Toronto stock market.

Chinalco's Peru Copper deal is part of its ongoing efforts in overseas expansion, analysts say.

It already has aluminum-related projects in Australia, Africa, Southeast Asia and South America, Xiao said.

Chinalco is now the world's fourth-largest aluminum company.

Peru Copper said it would use the money to fund its Toromocho project, a copper mine in Morococha in central Peru.

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