Antofagasta PLC on Wednesday said it completed the process of entering into a water transportation agreement, with payment due later this year.

In March, the Chile-focused miner signed a $2.5 billion financing agreement with a group of international lenders on a twelve-year term with a four-year drawdown period.

The loan was secured to fund the second concentrator project at the company’s 70% owned Centinela copper mine.

Coinciding with this, the company entered an agreement to provide Centinela with the option to receive water for its existing and future operations from an experienced international consortium.

The consortium was to acquire the existing water supply system and build an expansion to accommodate the second concentrator project.

Centinela would transfer its existing water transportation assets and rights for approximately $600 million.

Furthermore, the construction and associated capital expenditure for the planned expansion of the water transportation system would be undertaken by the consortium for $380 million, thus reducing Antofagasta’s costs for the project.

Wednesday’s announcement confirmed that those assets have been transferred to Transelec SA and Almar Water Solutions BV, with cash proceeds due later this year.

Chief Executive Officer Ivan Arriagada said: ‘Following today’s news and the recently announced Centinela second concentrator financing, we are in a good position to advance our growth ambitions in producing responsible copper for the global energy transition at a time when the global supply of copper has a limited ability to meet the expected medium-term rise in demand.’

Once completed, Antofagasta said that it expects the second concentrator to add 144,000 tonnes of copper to its annual output. In 2023, the company’s copper production was 660,000 tonnes.

Antofagasta shares were up 1.4% to 2,181.00 pence each in London on Thursday morning.

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