Chinalco Mining plans to raise US$400m in Hong Kong
Firm to offer 1.76b shares at an indicative price range of HK$1.52 to HK$1.91; five cornerstone investors commit to buy 62pc of the shares
Chinalco Mining Corporation International, an overseas unit of aluminium major Chinalco, aims to raise US$400 million to fund the construction of its copper mine in Peru.
Chinalco is the parent of Hong Kong and Shanghai-listed Aluminum Corp of China. It also controls mainland miner and smelter Yunnan Copper Group as well as rare earth and coal mining assets.
Xiong Weiping, chairman of both Chinalco and Chinalco Mining, said Chinalco's priority is to develop its copper business, and Chinalco Mining will play a key role in this.
Chinalco has shifted its development focus to copper and iron ore, after chronic overcapacity in the aluminium industry and rising energy costs saw Chalco suffer periods of losses.
Chinalco Mining in 2007 bought the Toromocho mine and has spent about US$2 billion so far to build it. Another US$1.5 billion has been budgeted to bring it to commercial production in this year's fourth quarter.
It has been backed by US$2.1 billion in credit facilities from the Export-Import Bank of China and China Development Bank.
The mine is expected to operate at full capacity in next year's third-quarter. The average annual copper output in its entire 32-year mining life is estimated at 650,000 tonnes.