China Minmetals announced on Tuesday that it has successfully
bought a majority stake in Northern Peru Copper (NPC) of Canada,
thus acquiring the property of El Galeno copper and gold mine and
Hilorico gold mine in northern Peru.
The announcement said the acquisition was met with a positive
response from the majority of the NPC shareholders and has been
approved by China's government.
The acquisition was conducted by the Copper Bridge Acquisition
Corp. (CBAC), jointly established by the China Minmetals and the
Jiangxi Copper Corporation. A total of 31,761,682 shares, or 95.92
percent of NPC's total, was transferred to the buyer's account,
according to the announcement.
CBAC paid 436.7 million Canadian dollars (436.3 million U.S.
dollars) on Jan. 28 for the purchase. According to Canadian law,
the remaining part of the purchase will be completed within two
months through compulsory buying.
After the takeover, CBAC will fully tap into the Galeno copper
project and start geological prospecting for the Hiloraco gold mine
and Pashpap copper-zinc mine.
The latest materials available show the development of the
Galeno project needed an investment of about 1.5 billion U.S.
dollars. It is expected to be operational in 2012.
The NPC's total resources volume includes 8.05 million tons of
copper and 198 tons of gold. This includes 7.41 million tons of
copper and 165.7 tons of gold stored in the Galeno copper and gold
mine.
CBAC signed an agreement with NPC in December offering 13.75
Canadian dollars a share in cash for all NPC's negotiable
stocks.
(Xinhua News Agency January 30, 2008)
