Group paying nearly $6b for stake in copper mine

 

Of the consortium, 62.5 percent is owned by Hong Kong-listed MMG Ltd, the offshore arm of China Minmetals Corp; 22.5 percent is owned by Guoxin International Investment Corp Ltd; and 15 percent is owned by CITIC Metal Co Ltd.

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Zhou Zhongshu, president of China Minmetals Corp, said: "The Las Bambas project completely matches the long-term strategy of CMC and MMG. It will further improve the portfolio of CMC in terms of mining assets and have strategic coordination with the current business."

David Lamont, executive director and CFO of MMG, said the deal "will largely expand the company's business scale and bring long-term strategic benefits".

The development of the Las Bambas copper mine was 66 percent achieved with an expenditure of $3.5 billion, but another $2.4 billion will need to be invested before it starts normal operations, according to Glencore, as reported by Hong Kong-based China Fortune on Monday.

Buying Las Bambas gives the Chinese consortium control of a mine that is forecast to produce 400,000 metric tons of copper a year starting in 2015, the equivalent to 12.5 percent of the 2013 imports of copper metal by China, the world's biggest buyer, Bloomberg said.

China imported 3.2 million tons of copper metal and 10.1 million tons of copper ore and concentrate last year, data from the country's customs authority show. Its consumption totaled 9.83 million tons in 2013, 47 percent of global demand, according to the World Bureau of Metal Statistics.

Du Juan contributed to this story.