Codelco is too big to sell. It's like Aramco in copper and no one knows how to value that thing. Someone told me the length of tunnels in Codelco's Machali mine is 4500 km. Would you wanna buy into this kind of operation?admin wrote: ↑Tue Apr 16, 2019 10:05 amwell here is a crux for chile, what to do about the state owned mining company.
on the one hand I am a bit concerned that cutting codelco loose in the market might lead to higher taxes; but, on the other I think these state dogs need to be privatized as they are fairly consistently loosing money and piling on debt for lack of options to go to the market for more capital. they can issue bonds, but not stock for instance.
So it's not sellable on its own merits because of the legacy, but, more importantly, it's not sellable because of how integrated it is into the Chilean economy. It's like selling and arm and a leg to pay off your debt.
Also, the Chilean government being an independant player on the copper market is a big deal. It's like the Russian government in the oil market. It has a lot of sway. If Codelco is sold, it will become part of the copper cartel, and sale proceeds will be the last money Chile will ever see from copper.