China Minmetals announced on Tuesday that it has successfully bought a majority stake in Northern Peru Copper (NPC) of Canada, thus acquiring the property of El Galeno copper and gold mine and Hilorico gold mine in northern Peru.

The announcement said the acquisition was met with a positive response from the majority of the NPC shareholders and has been approved by China's government.

The acquisition was conducted by the Copper Bridge Acquisition Corp. (CBAC), jointly established by the China Minmetals and the Jiangxi Copper Corporation. A total of 31,761,682 shares, or 95.92 percent of NPC's total, was transferred to the buyer's account, according to the announcement.

CBAC paid 436.7 million Canadian dollars (436.3 million U.S. dollars) on Jan. 28 for the purchase. According to Canadian law, the remaining part of the purchase will be completed within two months through compulsory buying.

After the takeover, CBAC will fully tap into the Galeno copper project and start geological prospecting for the Hiloraco gold mine and Pashpap copper-zinc mine.

The latest materials available show the development of the Galeno project needed an investment of about 1.5 billion U.S. dollars. It is expected to be operational in 2012.

The NPC's total resources volume includes 8.05 million tons of copper and 198 tons of gold. This includes 7.41 million tons of copper and 165.7 tons of gold stored in the Galeno copper and gold mine.

CBAC signed an agreement with NPC in December offering 13.75 Canadian dollars a share in cash for all NPC's negotiable stocks.

(Xinhua News Agency January 30, 2008)