Chile's ENAMI attracts interest from miners, traders for smelter financing

SANTIAGO, Sept 15 (Reuters) - Chile's state-run mining body ENAMI has received interest from 15 entities, including major miners and traders, to finance a $1.7 billion smelter modernization project, it said in a statement on Monday.

WHY IT'S IMPORTANT ENAMI said interested entities include mining companies (Rio Tinto), commodities traders (Mercuria, Hartree Partners, Vitol, Javelin Global Commodities), investment funds (Orion Resource Partners) and banks (Sumitomo Mitsui Bank Limited, Macquarie Bank, Societe Generale).

Japanese conglomerate Mitsui, Indian copper producer Indo Asia Copper and China Nonferrous Metal Industry’s Foreign Engineering and Construction also expressed interest, ENAMI said. KEY QUOTE "It has been very gratifying to see the market's interest in this mega-project ... it's a sign of investor confidence in the company," said ENAMI's head, Ivan Mlynarz, in a statement.

CONTEXT ENAMI in August kicked off a process to seek investors for a smelter modernization in exchange for copper cathode supply. The Hernan Videla Lira smelter in the Atacama region is undergoing renovations that will give it the capacity to process 850,000 metric tons of copper concentrate a year and produce 240,000 tons of copper cathodes. WHAT'S NEXT Initial offers are due by the end of October, after which ENAMI will proceed to a binding offer stage, the company said. (Reporting by Daina Beth Solomon, Editing by Rosalba O'Brien)

Société Générale

Rio Tinto