Mining’s old guard needs strong medicine
A new report details subpar investor returns in the mining industry over the last decade, particularly big cap diversified companies which have not adapted to new realities.
“China’s biggest gold producer, Zijin Mining Group Co., ended its offer to buy Australia’s Indophil Resources NL because the wait to get government approval for the deal in China was taking too long.”
Source: Wall Street Journal, June 27 2010
“China’s biggest gold producer, Zijin Mining Group Co., has made a 545 million Australian dollar (US$499.2 million) takeover bid for Australia’s Indophil Resources NL, seeking to gain access to the US$5.2 billion Tampakan copper-gold mine in the Philippines.
Tampakan is ‘a world-class copper-gold deposit [with] an annual production rate of 340,000 [metric] tons of copper in concentrates and 350,000 ounces of gold [about 10.89 tons],’ Zijin said in an official filing to the stock exchange, terming the Philippine asset as the key draw of the deal.
Source: Wall Street Journal, December 1 2009
Observations:
The Tampakan resource is developed by a Xstrata subsidiary which holds the remaining 62.5% of the shares.
Earlier this month Xstrata announced it would continue the mine studies on Tampakan, despite the potential ban on open pit mining imposed by local government.
Implications:
Chinese companies are not attempting to secure access to basic building materials, but as well to precious metals and diamonds. The market for these goods will shift increasingly to China and India. It is therefore likely that another Chinese company will contact Indophil.
As long as the Phillipine government does not decide on the future of the project it is unlikely Indophil will get a good price for its 37.5% stake in the project.
©2010 – thebusinessofmining.com
