ANFGF - Chilean lawmakers pass mining royalty reform set to hit copper producers

2023-05-17 19:40:33 ET

Chile's lower house on Wednesday approved a long-awaited mining tax and royalty reform that will require large copper miners to pay more to the government.

The measure now only requires the signature of President Gabriel Boric, who has publicly supported it, to become law.

The changes will include a rise in the total top tax rate to 46.5% for companies that produce more than 80K metric tons/year of copper, and establishes a 1% ad valorem tax on copper sales from companies whose sales surpass 50K metric tons of fine copper, as well as an additional tax as low as 8% and as high as 26%, depending on the miner's operating margin.

Outside of state-run Codelco, the major copper producers currently operating in Chile are BHP ( NYSE: BHP ), which owns the Escondida mine that produced more than 1M metric tons of copper in 2022; Glencore ( OTCPK:GLCNF ) ( OTCPK:GLNCY ), owner of the Collahuasi mine; Anglo American ( OTCQX:AAUKF ) ( OTCQX:NGLOY ), which owns the Los Bronces mine, and Antofagasta ( OTC:ANFGF ), owner of the Los Pelambres mine.

ETFs: ( NYSEARCA: COPX ), ( CPER ), ( JJCTF ), ( JJC )

Chile is by far the world's leading copper producing country, with an estimated 5.2M metric tons in 2022.

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