Group paying nearly $6b for stake in copper mine

Peruvian purchase from Swiss firm 'has great strategic significance'

A Chinese consortium led by the State-owned metal and mineral trader and producer China Minmetals Corp is buying part of a copper mine in Peru from merged commodities and mining group Glencore Xstrata Plc for a reported $5.85 billion.

It will be the largest Chinese purchase of an overseas mining asset since 2008, when State-owned Aluminum Corp of China took a 12 percent stake in Anglo-Australian mining company Rio Tinto Plc for $14 billion, according to financial information firm Dealogic.