Anglo American has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the National Copper Corporation of Chile, also known as Codelco, to unlock Chile’s full value as a premier copper district.
The MoU will establish a framework to implement a joint mine plan to develop the neighbouring Los Bronces and Andina copper operations. Anglo owns Los Bronces and Codelco owns Andina respectively.
The joint mine plan is expected to produce 2.7 million tonnes of copper over a 21-year period from 2030, as well as generate a net present value pre-tax increase of at least $5 billion over the course of the MoU, which will be equally shared between Anglo and Codelco.
The MoU comes as Anglo sharpens its focus on its copper and iron assets as part of its structural overhaul, which saw the major miner divest its entire steelmaking coal business to Peabody Energy for up to $US3.775 billion.
“Copper is at the forefront of our growth ambitions and we already have a clear pathway to more than one million tonnes of annual copper production by the early 2030s, a 30 per cent increase,” Anglo chief executive officer Duncan Wanblad said.
“Building on that growth pipeline, Los Bronces and Andina present obvious and significant adjacency benefits and together represent approximately two per cent of global copper resources and reserves, with approximately 60 million tonnes of contained copper.”
A new operating company, jointly owned and controlled by Anglo and Codelco, will execute the joint mine plan. Both companies will also retain full ownership over their respective assets, including mining concessions, plants, and ancillary operations, and will continue to extract resources separately.
Optimising the processing capacity of Los Bronces and Andina will also be a priority under the joint mine plan.
Codelco chairman Máximo Pacheco said Codelco and Anglo have worked together for several years via more than 10 cooperation agreements implemented over a 50-year period.
“We have a unique opportunity to rethink the development of this mining district and take a strategic and beneficial step: moving forward with an alliance that will allow us to increase copper production by an average of nearly 120,000 tonnes of fine copper per year, without any material additional investments,” Pacheco said.
“Considering total production, this district would become one of the three most important in Chile and the fourth worldwide.”
As per the MoU, Anglo and Codelco are working towards concluding due diligence and entering into definitive agreements in the second half of 2025. In the meantime, both companies will operate Los Bronces and Andina as normal.
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