SANTAGO – Chilean copper producer Antofagasta has sold its electricity transmission business Centinela Transmisión to Red Eléctrica Chile SpA, a subsidiary of Red Eléctrica Internacional, for US$117 million.
On Friday, the company said the sale of the unit that holds its electricity transmission lines was consistent with its strategy of disposing of its water and energy assets.
“This allows us to focus on our core business of producing copper safely and profitably,” Antofagasta CEO Ivan Arriagada said.
The business includes three transmission lines, extending for 265 km, which feed the Centinela copper mine. This subsidiary was created in November 2016, with the intention of easing its future sale.
Centinela Transmisión is composed of 3 transmission lines, with a total extension of 265 kilometers, which feed this mining operation. As reported, the transmission subsidiary was created in November 2016 to facilitate its sale.
For its part, Red Eléctrica Chile owns 50% of Transmisora Eléctrica del Norte (TEN), the company that is making the interconnection between the Interconnected System of the Norte Grande (SING) and the Central Interconnected System (SIC), as well as the 70% of Red Eléctrica de Norte (Redenor) located in the Pozo Almonte area. In addition, this Spanish group has properties in the power grid of southern Peru.
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Antofagasta, majority-owned by Chile’s Luksic family, one of the country’s wealthiest, set up its 70%-owned Centinela division in 2014 from the merger of the Esperanza and El Tesoro mining companies.
Centinela mines sulphide and oxide deposits 1,350 km north of Santiago in the Antofagasta Region, one of Chile’s most important mining areas.
Centinela Concentrates produces copper concentrate (containing gold and silver) through a milling and flotation process, and Centinela Cathodes produces copper cathodes using a solvent extraction and electrowinning process SX-EW.
