Message Jeu 24 Sep 2009 22:31

KONKOLA NORTH

African Rainbow plans regional expansion

Diversified South African miner, African Rainbow Minerals (ARM), plans to spend around US$250 million to develop the Konkola North copper project in Zambia.



ARM's executive director, Stompie Shiels, said the Konkola North copper project in Zambia, a joint venture with Vale of Brazil and the group's main project outside of South Africa, is expected to produce up to 45,000 tonnes of copper per year.



A decision to start mine development at the operation will be reached in the second quarter of 2010.



"We are fairly confident that this should go ahead. The project is going to be in the order of about $250 million," Shiels said.



He said ARM will delay the decision whether to develop the Lupoto copper project in the DRC, where exploration since 2007, has yielded around 24 million tonnes in copper, for "3 to 4 years". The company will only start mining developments when it reaches 100 million tonnes in available mineral resources.



Shiels said ARM expects global copper prices to remain volatile in the medium term, “but we believe if the supply and demand fundamentals remain the same, we will see a long term average price of US$4,000 a tonne."



Dan Simelane, chief executive for exploration at ARM, South Africa's second-biggest black-owned mining group, said the firm also plans to invest in coal and platinum group metals (PGM) projects in Zimbabwe.



ARM, which has interests in nickel, coal, iron ore, platinum, chrome and manganese in South Africa, said earlier this month it plans to spend more than 8 billion rand on expansions and upgrades on its South African mines. A separate budget will be available for regional projects.



The company plans to divest from some operations that are no longer part of its project portfolio, including the Ojikoto project in Namibia, which has a gold resource of about 1.93 million ounces. Ojikoto is out for tender and a lot of companies have shown interest in that gold project and hopefully it will be sold before year-end or early next year," Simelane said - http://www.forexyard.com.