For Sale in Chile: Prospective Copper deposits, only one previous owner

Map of Chile (it fits better this way)

A very interesting report from BN Americas on a speech given by Codelco's CEO Arellano yesterday. The prospect of some tasty copper resources coming on the market in everyone's favourite miner-friendly Chile might put the damper on investment in other parts of the world as mineheads change plans and head South. Here's the BN Americas report:

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Once markets start booming again Chile's state copper company Codelco will rid itself of more properties it owns but which are too small for Codelco to be interested in taking into production, CEO José Pablo Arellano said.

Codelco's most recent attempt to rid itself of one of its many small and mid-size copper properties in Chile was a try at bidding out 66% of the Inca de Oro deposit in region III near its Salvador mine, an effort to keep the mine open past its 2011 closure date.

But with the global crisis Codelco postponed the bidding indefinitely. "We've all fallen victim to the financial crisis," both large and small miners, Arellano said in a speech at a luncheon hosted by Chile's engineer's association in Santiago.

Prior to that Codelco unloaded the Boa Esperança project in Brazil for US$80mn to local miner Caraíba.

But despite the sales, Codelco has been accused for some time of hoarding deposits by Chile's small and mid-size copper miners.

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