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.
Brazil’s Eike Fuhrken Batista, the world of mining’s richest entrepreneur, said Friday his company has no plans of suspending its coal projects in Colombia as Bogota-based newspaper Portafolio reported Tuesday.
CCX, which Batista spun off last year to manage his greenfield coal mine project in Colombia, said Batista continues to believe in the Colombian coal project, despite the unfavourable market scenario.
However, InfoMoney reports (in Portuguese) that CCX’s coal projects in Colombia’s La Guajira department will be reviewed due to the market environment and current coal prices.
CCX, the smallest of Batista’s publicly traded companies by market value, as been developing mining projects in Colombia, including two open-pit mines and one underground longwall mine. It has also been working on a 150-kilometer railroad and a deep-water port.
Batista, who last year lost the title of Brazil’s richest person, famously said in 2008 – when his fortune was put at $6.6 billion, ranking him at No. 142 on the Forbes list – that his goal was to become the richest man in the world in five years.
Fast-forward to 2012 and he climbed 135 places to become the 7th richest person on the planet, but still a long way away from Mexico’s Carlos Slim who has more than twice Batista’s money.
He was born into mining and is the son of a former CEO of Vale, the world’s second largest miner and iron ore titan.
Read more about him on 2012 Mining Billionaires: #1 Eike Batista >> >>
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