Chinese bank, Kazakh trust to jointly invest $2.7 billion in Kazakh copper mine

State-owned China Development Bank Corporation (CDB) has joined hands with Kazakh state welfare fund Samruk-Kazyna to lend up to $2.7 billion to London-listed Kazakhmys, the world's eighth-biggest copper producer, to develop growth projects.

Of this, around $2 billion will be used to develop the Boschekul copper project, which could produce 12.5 million tonnes of copper ore annually, while $100 million will be used to fund the Bozymchak gold/copper project.

The remaining $600 million is available for signing over the next three years and will be allocated to other growth projects once committed.

"We are delighted to have reached an agreement with Samruk and the CDB that gives us flexible, long dated financing to deliver our major growth projects," said Kazakhmys chairman and CEO Oleg Novachuk in a statement.

"Bozymchak will now move into development, with first output in 2011, and the feasibility study for our major copper growth project at Boschekul will start in early 2010," Novachuk said, adding, "securing this funding is a major boost for copper production from Kazakhstan and will help meet the growing demand of our customers in China."

China is the world's top consumer of copper, a metal used widely in construction and power.