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Codelco secures US$480M debt funding for planned mine overhaul

Codelco secured US$480 million in debt funding to help bankroll its planned US$40 billion overhaul of aging mines through 2026, Bloomberg News reported Aug. 9, citing an exchange filing.

The Chilean state miner signed a 10-year, US$300 million loan agreement with Export Development Canada and sold two bonds for a combined US$180 million, the report said.

In April, Chairman Juan Benavides said Codelco was "perfectly well-financed" over the next two years and will not need to issue more debt for its revitalization plan.

At the time, copper prices were approaching a 10-month high, coming in at about US$6,500 per ton.

Prices have since fallen by about 12% and hit the lowest in two years in the week of Aug. 5, while Codelco's copper production in the first half of 2019 slipped 12.1% year on year to 769,400 tonnes.

Codelco sold its 37% stake in the GNL Mejillones natural gas plant in Chile for US$193.5 million earlier in August, after being released in July from an obligation to allocate 10% of its export sales to the country's armed forces.