Chile’s state copper miner Codelco said on Wednesday its joint mining plan with Anglo American at the Andina-Los Bronces project has received a green light from the South American nation’s antitrust regulator.
Chile is the world’s top producer of copper and Anglo American is a major operator in the Andean country.
“The project continues to advance with its regulatory approval process, while preparations are underway for the environmental permitting process and the establishment of the entity that will coordinate the joint operation,” Codelco said.
Codelco and Anglo American finalized their agreement to jointly operate their neighboring copper mines last September, a deal that aims at generating at least $5 billion from higher production and cost savings.
The plan looks to bring together certain operations at Codelco’s Andina mine and Anglo American’s Los Bronces mine in the Andes mountains of central Chile, boosting production by 120,000 metric tons of copper a year.
(By Fabian Cambero; Editing by Iñigo Alexander and Natalia Siniawski)
