Barrick said its recently formed joint venture with Antofagasta to operate the Zaldivar mine, shown here, will ‘help
to
realize [the mine’s] potential,’ including ‘the ability to leverage Antofagasta’s extensive in-country procurement
programs, contractor relationships and administrative efficiencies.’ (Photo: Barrick Gold)
Barrick Gold completed sale of a 50% interest
in its Zaldívar copper mine in northern
Chile to Antofagasta Plc on December 1.
Plans for the transaction were initially
announced in late July. Under the new ownership
structure, Zaldívar will have a joint
Barrick-Antofagasta board of directors consisting
of three Barrick nominees and three
Antofagasta nominees. Antofagasta will act
as the operator of the mine and will be subject
to oversight and direction by the board.
Zaldívar is an open-pit, heap-leach copper
mine located approximately 1,400 km
north of Santiago and 175 km southeast of
the port city of Antofagasta. The mine produced
222 million lb of copper in 2014 at
C1 cash costs of $1.79/lb and 167 million
lb in the nine months ended September
30, 2015, at C1 cash costs of $1.67/lb.
As of December 31, 2014, Zaldívar had
2.5 million metric tons (mt) of contained
copper in proven and probable reserves,
for a current reserve life of approximately
14 years, with further upside potential
through exploration.
Total consideration payable by Antofagasta
for the transaction was $1.0 billion in
cash, including $980 million upon closing
and five annual payments of $5 million per
year starting in 2016.
As featured in Womp 2016 Vol 01 - www.womp-int.com