① BHP Billiton announced on its official website that it will jointly acquire Filo Corp. with Canada's Lundin Mining; ② BHP Billiton will also establish a joint venture with Lending, each holding 50-50 shares to manage the copper project “Filo del Sol” originally owned by Filo.
Financial Services Association, July 30 (Editor Zhao Hao) On Tuesday (July 30) local time, mining giant BHP (BHP) announced on its official website that it will jointly acquire Filo Corp. with Canada's Lundin Mining Corporation (Lundin Mining Corporation).
Source: BHP Billiton official website
According to information, Filo Corp. is an exploration and development company headquartered in Vancouver, Canada, and its shares are listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange and Nasdaq's “First Northern Growth Market.” As of the close of trading on Monday, the price of Filo's stock listed in Canada was $29.42.
According to the press release, the total consideration in the joint acquisition was approximately 4.1 billion Canadian dollars (about 3 billion US dollars), or 33 Canadian dollars per share, a 12.2% premium over yesterday's closing price. BHP Billiton will also set up a joint venture with 50 to 50 shares each to manage the original Filo copper project.
This project is the “Filo del Sol” (FDS) mining area spanning Argentina and Chile. According to Filo's official website, FDS is a high-sulfur shallow-formed low-temperature hydrothermal copper-gold-silver deposit. In 2022, BHP Billiton had already acquired 5% of Filo's shares, while Lundin held 32% of the shares.
Source: Filo's official website
The joint venture between BHP Billiton and Lendine will also be merged into Lundin's wholly-owned “Josemaria” project. The project is only 10 km from FDS, and the two originally shared a working camp. As a result, BHP Billiton will have to bear a higher cost in the agreement, and the total cash expenditure is estimated to be around 2.1 billion US dollars.
Mike Henry (Mike Henry), CEO of BHP Billiton, wrote, “This transaction is in line with BHP Billiton's strategy to acquire attractive early-stage copper projects and establish strategic partnerships with partners with complementary skills and experience to achieve long-term economic and social value.”
Two months ago, BHP Billiton abandoned plans to acquire British and American resources, and the “Century Deal” worth nearly 50 billion US dollars officially came to an end. Analysts believe that BHP Billiton is very confident about the future of copper prices and wants to include copper mines from British and American resources in the layout to firmly stifle the global energy transition.
There was an opinion at the time that BHP Billiton might later select other targets to supplement its copper business. This also reflects the current problems facing the mining industry. Many miners would rather buy a competitor than launch a brand new copper mine, as new projects are often more difficult and more expensive.