Japan\u2019s mining and energy conglomerate JXTG Holdings Inc., the majority owner of Chile\u2019s Caserones copper\u00a0mine, is said to be studying the sale of the operation, in a deal that could fetch about $1 billion.<\/p>\n
According to The Wall Street Journal<\/a>, the urge for offload the asset comes amid expectations of rising copper prices, driven in part by a lack of investment in new mines and soaring demand for electric vehicles (Evs), which use twice as much copper as internal combustion engines.<\/p>\n Asked about the report by Reuters<\/em>, however, JX Nippon Mining \u2014 the metal unit of JXTG Holdings \u2014 declined to comment<\/a>, adding it was not something that has already been decided.<\/p>\n Caserones has become a source of worries for its owners, which include Mitsui Mining & Smelting and Mitsui & Co. The copper mine,\u00a0behind schedule<\/a>\u00a0ever since it began producing in May 2014, has not only been affected by a series of technical problems in its ramp-up phase, but it has also\u00a0cost the Japan-based miners hefty impairment charges<\/a>.<\/p>\n The operation\u2019s expected annual production still falls short of the 150,000 tonnes target intended when construction of the mine began. On top of that, operator Minera Lumina Copper Chile (MLCC) is currently facing\u00a0fines of up to $54.8 million<\/a>\u00a0for infractions to the provisions established in its mining permit.<\/p>\n Chile’s Superintendency of the Environment (SMA) also went after Lumina in 2015, ordering it to pay $11.9 million<\/a>\u00a0for breaching environmental rules. At the time, it was the second-highest fine the SMA had imposed since it was created in 2012.<\/p>\n The largest penalty until then \u2014 $16 million \u2014\u00a0was\u00a0issued in 2013 to Barrick Gold\u2019s<\/a>\u00a0now shuttered Pascua Lama gold and silver mine.<\/p>\n Caserones is located at an altitude of 4,200m to 4,600m above sea-level in the Atacama Desert, close to the border with Argentina.<\/p>\n Copper concentrate output from the operation totalled 136,500 tonnes last year. That\u2019s equivalent to just 2.3% of Chile’s total annual output in 2018, which stood at 5.83 million tonnes \u2014 its largest volume ever.<\/p>\n The post Japanese owner of Chile\u2019s Caserones copper mine said to be mulling sale<\/a> appeared first on MINING.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Asked about it, however, JX Nippon Mining — the metal unit of JXTG Holdings — declined to comment, adding it was not something that has already been decided.<\/p>\n The post Japanese owner of Chile’s Caserones copper mine said to be mulling sale<\/a> appeared first on MINING.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[647,679,2390,404,369,1580,440],"tags":[25,28,33,71],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1112024"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1112024"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1112024\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1112025,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1112024\/revisions\/1112025"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1112024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1112024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1112024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}The mine, behind schedule ever since it began producing in May 2014, has been affected by a series of technical problems in its ramp-up phase, costing its owners hefty impairment charges.<\/q><\/p>\n