BNamericas reported that Chilean Codelco's workers will ask president Mr Sebastian Piñera to reject a deal in which 66% stake in the company's Inca de Oro copper deposit will be sold to Australian miner PanAust.

The agreement between Codelco and PanAust was originally announced at end February this year. The latter has offered to pay USD 45 million for the stake.

Codelco is allowed to create JVs with third parties to develop mining projects in Chile and abroad but the deals need to be ratified by the government. The state company has said the sale of the Inca de Oro stake is not in doubt since the size of the deposit is not attractive enough for Codelco to develop and operate on its own.

FESUC, however, believes Codelco should mine Inca de Oro and create synergies with Salvador, its smallest and least profitable division, which was originally set to stop operating in 2011.

Salvador's minelife has been extended to 2021 as current copper prices have made it profitable to keep mining low grade ore from the deposit. Codelco plans to further extend operations at Salvador until 2038 by developing the USD 238 million San Antonio project which aims at mining remaining ore from old deposits surrounding current operations.

Mr Diego Hernandez CEO of Codelco has asked for time to evaluate the transaction before sending it for approval to Piñera. Since the Inca de Oro deal was approved by a previous administration. It has not been made public whether Hernandez has completed his evaluation.

(Sourced from Business News Americas)