A Texas state court has ruled that Mexican mining company Grupo Mexico denied punitive damages claims made by Asarco and that Grupp paid a reasonable amount for Asarco's stake in Southern Copper Corp.
At the same time, a federal judge found that Grupo committed fraud against Asarco when it transferred Asarco's stake in Peruvian copper mines to another Grupo subsidiary just before Asarco declared bankruptcy, in an apparent move to protect those assets from being used to settle Asarco's creditors, including environmental liabilities.