Mitsubishi Materials completes Chile’s Mantoverde copper mine stake deal

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Japan’s Mitsubishi Materials Corp said on Friday, February 12th, it had completed its purchase of a 30% stake in Chile’s Mantoverde copper mine from Mantos Copper for US$275 million.

Japan’s third-biggest copper smelter also said US$520 million in project finance had been completed.

The US$275 million investment includes a pro-rata portion of construction capital expenditure as well as adjustments for working capital since last February, it said in a statement.

Mitsubishi announced plans to buy the stake last year to secure concentrate for its smelters.

The acquisition was subject to conditions including an arrangement of project finance, which was completed with six banks on Friday, a spokesman said, without identifying the lenders.

As part of the deal, Mitsubishi Materials agreed to provide a US60 million credit facility to cover potential cost overruns until completion of the project, which provides the company with incremental copper concentrates it produces.

As a result, on top of an offtake entitlement from its 30% stake, Mitsubishi Materials expects to be entitled to about 42% of the copper concentrate from the project, it said.

The mine has 2.1 million tonnes of copper reserves and is owned by a consortium led by British investment company Audley Capital Advisors and Orion Mine Finance, which control Mantos Copper.

The partners plan to spend $784 million to expand facilities and build a concentrator to extract and process sulphide ore, with an aim to start production in 2023.

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