Japan's Mitsubishi Materials Corp. has acquired a 25% stake in a B.C. copper project under development by Vancouver's Copper Mountain Mining Corp. (TSX:CUM).
In addition to paying $28.75 million for its 25% stake in the Copper Mountain project near Princeton, B.C., Mitsubishi Materials will arrange a $250 million project loan and has agreed to purchase all of the copper concentrate from the mine.
To date, Copper Mountain has spent $40 million to develop the project that operated as an open pit copper mine between 1972 and 1996, producing 1.74 billion pounds of copper over the mine's life. Over the next 17-year life of the project, the company estimated the mine will produce an additional 1.47 billion pounds of copper, 452,000 ounces of gold and 4.5 million ounces of silver.
Copper Mountain's share price range during the past week: between $1.30 and $1.55; 52-week high: $1.60; 52-week low: $0.31.