Anglo American/Codelco, the plot thickens.

Anglo American released a statement last evening, this after a Chilean court blocked any further sales by Anglo American of their copper assets in Chile. Anglo American are going to oppose this ruling. From my simple reading of the matter, this is messy at best, and is going to last a long time. Reuters are reporting that Codelco are of the opinion that this could take as much as four years to resolve. In court for four years? That sounds like fighting talk to me. Codelco have outright said that they are going to exercise their right, come January next year, for 49 percent of the Anglo American Sur assets. The next question however, is the important one, if you were Mitsubishi, would you not walk away now? And say, nope, sorry, thanks for what looks like a good deal for you in the short term, but this looks messy. Would you? Because the thinking is that Codelco could only own 24.5 percent now, because Mitsubishi had agreed last week to buy the same amount for 5.4 billion Dollars. A deal is not a deal until the money is in the till right?

And the last people that you want to get ugly with are the government owned copper mining entity in Chile right? So Codelco reckon that they can own a full 49 percent, Mitubishi have agreed to buy 24.5 percent, I smell some sort of agreement that will see Codelco buying not all they want, but not only 24.5 percent. That is the way that I see it. Either way, this is a calculated risk on Anglo American's part. To read the release -> Anglo American to oppose injunction on sale of further shares in Anglo American Sur. I do not know what to think about this. I guess we will just have to wait and see.