Chile's Codelco will consider asset sales and partnerships as part of its investment review

Codelco is a state-owned company in Chile and one of the world's biggest copper producers. As part of an overall review of investment priorities, Codelco's Chairman Bernardo Fontaine announced on Wednesday that it would consider asset sales as well as partnerships.

Since years, different leadership teams have expressed differing opinions on whether the company should be selling assets.

This could be a sign of a change under Fontaine’s new leadership. The miner has been transferring?its profit to the state for years and has argued this policy has hampered?investment, and added to its debt burden.

Codelco has been under pressure by the government of Jose Antonio 'Kast who appointed Fontaine to be chairman after an internal audit revealed irregularities in reporting production last year. Codelco is also trying recover from the sharp decline in copper production in 2022-2023.

Fontaine said to a lower house congressional committee that "we have made progress in a comprehensive assessment of the company's current situation. This is a process which will take approximately three to four months for the diagnosis to be completed and the plan to improve to be implemented."

Fontaine explained that as part of this 'process, Codelco would decide whether or not to continue with certain investments, and evaluate its portfolio in order to determine if it should retain all its assets, or whether or not to seek sales or partnerships.

Codelco is the owner of some of Chile's largest copper mines including Chuquicamata, El Teniente and Chuquicamata. It holds a?participation in several others including 49% of El Abra with Freeport-McMoRan, and 10% in Quebrada blanca with Teck. Reporting by Fabian Cambero, Writing by Daina-Beth Solomon; Editing and proofreading by Kylie Madry & Alistair Bell

(source: Reuters)