Codelco, Anglo American to Develop Chilean Mines

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Written by Amir Richani for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Codelco (Santiago, Chile), the Chilean state miner, and Anglo American plc (London, England) signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to develop the neighboring Los Bronces and Andina mines together. The assets are located in the Valparaiso and Santiago regions of Chile, only a few kilometers away from one another.

The companies hope to finalize their agreement by the second half of this year. Following the completion of the agreement, the companies foresee that the permits to operate under the "Plan Minero Conjunto" will take at least five years.

The plan will increase copper production by 120,000 metric tons annually between 2030 and 2051 without additional material investments. With merging operations, the companies expect to generate an additional pre­-tax value of US$ 5 billion.

The MoU foresees the creation of a new company in which both will hold a 50% stake, though each company will retain ownership rights to their respective assets.

In terms of operations, each of the companies will extract the minerals independently, while the processing of the materials will use the synergies of the companies' assets, including their plants' capacities. The copper production from these activities will be split equally while each company will conduct its commercialization.

Mitsui & Co. Limited (Tokyo, Japan) and Codelco own 29.5% of Anglo American Sur, Anglo American's subsidiary in Chile and owner of Los Bronces.

"Building on that growth pipeline, Los Bronces and Andina present obvious and significant adjacency benefits, and together represent approximately 2% of global copper resources and reserves, with approximately 60 million tonnes of contained copper. By putting in place a joint mine plan and optimizing the use of our respective processing plants, we believe we can unlock an additional 2.7 million tonnes of copper production over a 21-year period from 2030 alongside other operational synergies made possible by coordinating our activities across the site", said Duncan Wanblad, chief executive officer of Anglo American.

In 2024, Codelco produced 181,600 tons of copper from the Andina mine, about 10.4% more than in 2023. Meanwhile, Anglo American had an output of 172,000 tons of copper from its Los Bronces mine in Chile throughout 2024.

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