Chile’s government is giving state-owned Codelco $1 billion in “extraordinary” capitalization to help it fund an ambitious plan aimed at upgrading its aging mines and dealing with dwindling ore grades.
The country’s mining minister, Baldo Prokurica, said the backing was essential for Codelco to keep up production numbers and so remain as the world’s No.1 copper miner, Diario Financiero reports (in Spanish).
The figure, though significant, is minor when taken in the context of Codelco’s investment strategy, originally pegged at $25 billion (now sitting at $18bn).
The miner, which hands over all of its profits to the state, holds vast copper deposits, accounting for 10% of the world’s known proven and probable reserves and about 11% of the global annual copper output with 1.8 million metric tonnes of production.
However, most of its mines are running out of copper and need heavy investment in order to extend their productive life.
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From:: Infomine