Diversified mining company Anglo American sold a 24.5 percent stake in it Sur copper mining complex in Chile for USD 5.4 billion to Japan's Mitsubishi. With the sale, Anglo undermines Chilean state copper company Corporacion Nacional del Cobre's (Codelco) plans to exercise an option to buy a 49 percent stake in the Sur complex in January. Mongolia will emerge as a major competitor to Chile's copper products once Oyu Tolgoi begins production in 2013.

Mitsubishi, which is looking to expand its investment in overseas natural resources, said in a statement it expects the purchase of the stake to nearly double its yearly copper output, from 140,000 tons currently to 250,000 tons in 2012.  Mitsubishi, through a consortium it leads, holds a 12.5 percent state in the Escondida copper mine in Chile, the world's largest mine of the industrial metal, controlled by BHP Billiton.

Anglo, in a statement, said it will use the proceeds from the transaction for a “general corporate purposes.” Anglo American Chile’s general manager Miguel Angel Duran said the proceeds wouldn't necessarily be reinvested in Chile, but noted the Chilean government would receive around USD 1 billion in capital gains taxes from the sale to Mitsubishi. With the Mitsubishi deal, the Sur complex was valued at USD 22 billion.

Codelco, in a brief statement, said the sale didn't affect its rights over its option and that it would “exercise all the necessary actions to wholly reaffirm its rights.”