Mitsubishi just bought a copper stake. They payed $760-$890 million for 18% stake. Any way we can translate this to what we can expect for CUU?

Mitsubishi Corp buys 18% of Peru copper project

TOKYO (REUTERS) -

Mitsubishi Corp said on Monday it had bought an 18 percent stake in Peruvian copper project Quellaveco, a hotly contested asset among Japanese trading and mining companies - in a deal reportedly worth $760 million to $890 million.

Japan's largest trading house outbid JX Nippon Mining and Metals Corp, the parent of Japan's biggest copper smelter Pan Pacific Copper, Mitsui & Co and one other Japanese trading company, an industry source said.

Global giant Anglo American, which owns nearly 82 percent of the project, said in September it needed $3 billion in capital for the project. The mine is slated to open in 2016 and produce around 225,000 tonnes of copper a year. It would have a 28 year lifespan.

Mitsubishi bought the holding from the International Finance Corp, a lending arm of the World Bank. The Nikkei business daily said Mitsubishi paid about 60-70 billion yen.

Mitsubishi has shown increased interest in South American copper assets, partly to feed growing Asian demand for the metal. Chile and Peru are the world's No. 1 and No. 2 copper producers, respectively.

Last November, Mitsubishi agreed to acquire a 24.5 percent stake in Anglo's southern Chilean properties for $5.4 billion.

That deal upset Chile's state-run miner Codelco, which thought it had an option to buy 49 percent of Anglo's assets in southern Chile and has filed a lawsuit to fight its case.

Mitsubishi's copper output will jump 80 percent to 250,000 tonnes of copper in the new financial year starting in April, up from 140,000 tonnes, as a result of the Anglo Sur's properties in southern Chile.