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.
Gold, copper and silver producer Anglo Asian Mining (LON: AAZ), has made a third investment in Canada’s Libero Copper & Gold (TSX-V: LBC), which focuses on finding copper assets in the Americas.
The Azerbaijan-focussed miner acquired on Monday 2.6 million new Libero shares at 15 Canadian cents each, for a total consideration of C$390,000 (about $291,000).
The investment maintains the company’s share holding at 19.8% of Libero, and forms part of a recently launched private placement by Libero, with gross proceeds of about C$2 million ($1.5m) to be used for exploration at the Mocoa and Esperanza copper porphyry projects in Colombia and Argentina, respectively.
Libero provides Anglo Asian with exposure to significant copper resources, in addition to the company’s fully-owned projects, including the world-class Garadagh resource.
“With an exciting range of significant copper assets across the Americas, and an experienced management team, we have the utmost confidence in Libero to develop these assets in a swift and responsible manner,” chief executive officer Reza Vaziri said in a statement.
Anglo Asian’s investment in Libero is the first and so far only one the company has made outside of Azerbaijan, where it is the top gold producer.
Anglo Asian is currently at the final stages of developing its medium-term growth strategy, culminating in its transition to becoming a copper focused, mid-tier miner.
