Buyers seem to be lining up for Glencore Xstrata’s (LON:GLEN) massive Peru copper mine. To the three major Chinese potential bidders Chinalco Mining, Hong Kong’s MMG and Jiangxi Copper – China’s largest copper producer – former Barrick Gold Corp. CEO Aaron Regent, is said to be preparing a bid for Las Bambas project.
According to Bloomberg, Regent’s investment firm Magris Resources Inc. is currently evaluating an investment for the three Las Bambas copper open pits, which will also produce significant quantities of gold, silver and molybdenum as by-product.
In total, the project is expected to produce more than 400,000 tonnes of copper a year when it goes into production towards the end of 2014.
The only reason Glencore is selling Xstrata’s Peruvian project is because it signed a deal with the Chinese regulators for approving its $76-billion merger with mining giant Xstrata.
If Glencore does not receive a binding sale and buying agreement by the end of this month, with a transfer of ownership by the end of June 2015, the firm could sell other mine sites.
6 Comments
Frustrated miner
This is why mining industry is currently moving towards a state of debacle. Regent played with billions of dollars of investor money and bottomed out Barrick. Less did you know he had his own investment firm from the millions he made from salary (if anyone agrees that he deserved it please stay away from mining industry we don’t want anymore job cuts and writedowns while you take home a hefty pay check after getting fired). With all that and his billionaire friends in investment firms he want to destroy another great project where he already has bad reputation after destroying Pascua Lama.
This is a request to the Mining industry. Please appoint engineers and geologists to your management team and let them evaluate the projects and not let accountants make decisions.
Real Miners vs Arthur Anderson
Amen brother. The worst thing to ever hit the mining industry in our time was the break up of Arthur Anderson. All of those idiots seem to have landed in our industry and have tanked more than just Barrick.
James
NO, (frustrated miner) do not appoint Geologists and Mining Engineers to top managemet posts, neither of them have operationl financial acumen. Rather remove the lawyers, and economsts and replace them with business managers and mining operations/maintenance professionals whom have been in the trenches or many years.
Frustrated Miner
Many Mining engineers and geologists graduating now a days have some financial background. I am a Mining Engineer and I took mineral economics and engineering economics. Plus I plan on getting my MBA in the next 3 years after I acquire my P.eng (Canada) designation.
I feel like Mining industry needs that shift and evaluate its upper management. COO SHOULD (emphasized) be a guy who has worked his way up from a miner to a mine manager. Many companies even have accountants or finance majored guys as COO which is completely BS. For example Aaron Regent is a brilliant man who excelled in finance but I am sure he doesn’t know when they should long hole or when they should cut and fill. This small change can make a big difference in your balance sheet. Yes it wasn’t his job to know that but he could have asked a number of questions to his project manager at Pascua Lama or his operators in Australia.
I feel only the CFO position should be given to an accountant or finance major. Rest should be handled by professionals who have hands on experience in the industry.
Diogenes
Engineers have to live with the stigma that they do not make decision based on economics but in emotions, they fill in love with mines and processes and even when the mine is not making money they persist in keeping it running. That is the reason why accountants and lawyers have taken over. Some accountants are even proud to say “I don’t know any anything about mining” for that I hire engineers or even more “I am not an engineer but I have 10 of them reporting to me.” Inco and Falconbridge disappeared from Canada because they were managed by engineers; they refuse to talk each other and Canada lost two of its major mining icons. By the way I am an engineer.
Mining Engineer and MBA
I agree 100% with Frustrated Miner. I am also a Mining Engineer and I have proposed to fight back for a Managerial Position because I am convinced that it is the right thing to do. An MBA degree is no more complicated than designing phases for an open pit or optimizing cut-off; and “financial acumen” is embedded in the Mine Planning process.