BHP worried about Chile's new leftest govt BHP (NYSE:BHP -1.4%) says it could spend at least $10B in Chile over the next 50 years to fuel growth in the world's top copper producing country, but only in an environment of "fiscal stability, legal certainty and a clear pathway to permit," Reuters reports.
Investments from BHP would fund a new concentrator and leach processing facilities, new mining areas and projects to help reduce the company's carbon emissions, BHP president for the Americas Ragnar Udd told the CRU-CESCO World Copper Conference in Santiago.
Major copper producer Chile recently elected a new leftist government, is redrafting its constitution and considering raising its mining royalty to fund expanded social programs, prompting some copper miners to delay investment decisions in the country.
Also at the conference, Chile's new mining minister Marcela Hernando Prez told the group that the government does not plan to nationalize the country's mining sector.
Antofagasta (OTC:ANFGF) CEO Ivan Arriagada told the conference that copper market fundamentals are solid despite current market volatility and sees prices remaining high for at least the next 12 months.
"BHP does not need a commodities supercycle to be attractive," Tarek El Sherbini writes in a bullish analysis newly published on Seeking Alpha.