Kores, LS-Nikko To Buy 20% Stake In Panama Copper Mine

The two companies plan to invest a total of KRW840 billion ($705 million) in the mine in the next three years.

The mine has copper reserves of about 1 billion tons and is expected to produce an average of 230,000 tons annually for more than 30 years beginning in 2014.

Resource-deficient South Korea's copper imports totaled about 960,000 tons in 2008.

The latest project will increase the country's self-sufficiency rate for copper to 15% in 2015 from 10% at the end of 2008.

-By Shin Jung-Won, Dow Jones Newswires; 822-2198-2240; jung-won.shin@ dowjones.com

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