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 Fuhrken Batista is the world of mining’s richest man and 2012 has been treating his businesses well.
As of yesterday Batista, 55, had increased his wealth by 18.4% to $26.6 billion according to Bloomberg data, although earlier in the year his riches were in excess of $30 billion. The personable son of an ex-Vale CEO has moved up one position this year to become the 9th most wealthy person on the planet.
But a sell- in commodity stocks and oil companies saw him take a huge hit on Tuesday. His oil and gas firm OGX sold and so did EBX, his resource holdings company.
The declines wiped $1,744,800,000 from Batista’s personal fortune in one day, which means he fared worse than Mark Zuckerberg who suffered more than $1.5 billion in losses as a result of the post Facebook IPO fiasco.
Rio de Janeiro-based Batista controls five public companies and is busy selling chunks to diversify and move into other industries. He was a speedboat champion in his younger days, likes Ultimate Fighting Championship and is now moving into sports management. Last month he sold $2 billion in EBX to the Abu Dhabi emirate and on Wednesday said he found a US buyer for another $300 million stake.
While the bulk of his wealth comes from shipping iron ore, coal and potash and more recently oil, Batista started out as a gold trader and small-scale miner in the Amazon. AUX, the company that controls his gold assets, may be IPOed he told Bloomberg on Wednesday:
The company, which has resources of 11 million ounces of gold in a Colombian mine, will have a certified report on its reserves as early as September, he said.
“We could also decide to drill more and make it bigger,” Batista said.
CCX, Batista’s coal unit, announced last week that it discovered a 672 million tonnes reserve, making it the fifth largest coal deposit in the world, at San Juan in Colombia. CCX is being spun and will list separately on the Sao Paulo exchange on May 25.
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