Codelco Plans Anglo American Option After $6.75 Billion Loan

Codelco, the world’s biggest copper company, plans to exercise an option to buy as much as 49 percent of an Anglo American Plc Chile unit in a deal that may increase the state-owned company’s annual output by 10 percent.

Mitsui & Co. Ltd., based in Tokyo, agreed to lend Codelco up to $6.75 billion toward the acquisition of the stake in Anglo American Sur SA, which owns the Los Bronces and El Soldado mines in central Chile, Codelco said yesterday in an e-mailed statement. The Santiago-based company also agreed to sell Mitsui 30,000 tons of copper a year and can repay some of the loan through selling Mitsui 50 percent of the stake acquired.