European Commission approves purchase of the Chilean company Sierra Gorda by South32 and KGHM

The European Commission (EC) gave the green light to the acquisition of joint control of the Chilean mining company Sierra Gorda by the Australian company South32 and the Polish company KGHM, after concluding that the transaction would not raise competition problems in the community market.

with the operation, South32 would buy 45% of the shares of Sierra Gorda to the Japanese group Sumitomo, which until then divided its share between Sumitomo Metal Mining (31.5%) and Sumitomo Corporation (13.5%), while KGHM he would own the remaining 55%, which he already owned.

In a statement, the Community Executive assured that the transaction is compatible with the European Union (EU) Merger Regulation due to the limited presence of Sierra Gorda in the single market and the limited overlap between the commercial activities maintained by the three corporations .

“The Commission concluded that the proposed acquisition would not raise competition concerns, because Sierra Gorda has insignificant activities in the European Economic Area and the overlaps between the activities of Sierra Gorda, South32 and KGHM are limited.”, reads the text.

Sierra Gorda is a company dedicated to the exploitation of a mine located in Chile, from which it extracts molybdenum and copper concentrates that contain silver and gold.

For its part, South32 trades mining products, notably silver, from deposits located in Australia, southern Africa and South America, while KGHM supplies commodities from deposits around the world, including copper, silver, gold and molybdenum, the Commission said.

The Community Executive used the transaction using the simplified procedure to evaluate mergers.