Copper prices are definitely going higher with the political situation in the top 2 copper producing countries. AIS will be a major beneficiary with this development.

A push to tax the copper boom is spreading from Chile to Peru

SANTIAGO/NEW YORK (May 17): A proposal to tax Chilean copper sales at rates of as high as 75% is reverberating all the way to Peru, where the leading presidential candidate wants to impose a similar measure.

Pedro Castillo, who has vowed to nationalize a major gas field and capture more mineral profits to fund social spending, just added a tax on copper sales to his platform in a document he shared on Twitter late Sunday.

The left-wing candidate, who retains a slim lead over his rival ahead of a runoff election, joins a list of politicians from copper-mining nations looking to gain a bigger share of record-high prices to fight poverty. In top producer Chile, the lower house of congress earlier this month passed a system of progressive taxes on copper sales in what could become one of the heaviest levies in global mining.

“Let us note that the Chilean Chamber of Deputies has already approved a new royalty whose rate reaches 75% if it exceeds US$4 a pound, as is the case today,” Castillo’s Free Peru party said in the document.

Among proposed measures are a new tax on profits, royalties based on sales “as do neighbouring countries such as Chile and Colombia” and the renegotiation of tax stability contracts with large companies, according to the document.

In Chile, the mining industry and the government say the copper sales royalty – which would come on top of corporate taxes and a separate tax on mining earnings – would erode Chile’s competitiveness and stall investments.

Peru, host to companies including Freeport-McMoRan Inc and BHP Group, is the largest producer of copper after Chile and a major zinc, silver and gold supplier.