First Quantum bounces back as economy recovers
Miner sees good and bad sides of African investments with its problems in the Democratic Republic of Congo
By Scott Simpson, Vancouver Sun October 27, 2010
The global metal market's bounce-back in 2009, coupled with a cost-shaving efficiency drive, put First Quantum Minerals decisively into the black last year.
The Vancouver-based copper-gold producer saw net income jump tenfold to $463 million US, and the copper unit cash cost of production drop to 96 cents a pound from $1.23.
Most of that performance was driven by two mines.
Improvements to processing cut the average cash cost of production 23 per cent by year's end and set the stage for enhanced gold production beginning in 2010 at First Quantum's flagship Kansanshi copper and gold operation in Zambia.
"When the price [of copper] starts going up, not only do you get higher revenues but you also get positive adjustments to the metal -you get more for the metal when you sell it than what you actually provisionally priced it [at]," First Quantum president and CEO Clive Newall said in a telephone interview from the company's London office.
The economic meltdown of 2008, which sent both copper prices and demand tumbling, obliged many mining companies around the world to shave production costs in order to stay in operation, Newall said.
"The increases in production were nearly all related to improving efficiency in our processing plants. We just squeezed more copper out of the operations that were already in existence. There was no new production coming on stream last year.
"In the collapse in the markets, we focused very much on costs. We did a lot of things to reduce costs because we and everybody else in the business were expecting metal prices to go lower than they, in fact, did.
"When things start to improve, all of those things you've done to improve your cost base really pay off, so you start looking very efficient when the market goes back up again."
First Quantum's Frontier copper operation in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) was a major contributor to the company's success last year after coming onstream in 2007 and ramping up production in 2008.
Last year was the first year Frontier operated near full capacity but a legal -- or perhaps illegal -- dispute about its future has dealt the company a setback.
"In 2009 we were the biggest taxpayer in the DRC by a long, long way. We were eight times bigger than the next nearest taxpayer. I think our tax payments from Frontier mine alone were 50 per cent of all tax revenues to the treasury of the DRC," Newall said.
Frontier was expropriated late last year by the DRC government, and First Quantum has launched an arbitration in the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes in Washington, D.C. to contest the government's actions -- including what the company calls "illegal possession of the company's investments and assets."
Almost 2,000 Congolese mine workers have been idled as a result of the dispute and First Quantum has halted all of the social programs it initiated, the company said in news release earlier this month.
That's not the only case. First Quantum is also disputing through the Paris-based International Chamber of Commerce a decision by DRC to seize and transfer title of the company's Kolwezi project in the Congo, which was 75-percent complete and already providing 7,000 local jobs leading to a planned May 2010 mine opening.
"It's a difficult operating environment, but nothing like the events of the last 18 months, where the illegal expropriation of two of our assets doesn't make any sense at all. It's crazy stuff," Newall said.
Not all recent news has been negative.
First Quantum continues to acquire new assets with the intention of expanding the company and its international footprint.
In late 2009, it acquired from global mining giant BHP Billiton the Ravensthorpe nickel project in western Australia.
"The commissioning of the plant didn't go very well for them. They decided to sell it. They took a writedown of $3.6 billion, and we acquired it for $340 million from them.
"We're rebuilding a lot of the plant. We are about halfway through that process. It's due to start commissioning at the end of Q1 or early Q2 next year."
The company has continued on that path in 2010 after laying groundwork in 2009.
"We acquired a company called Kiwara Resources, which is listed on AME. They had a project listed in Zambia [now called Sentinel] which we have been working very hard on this year. It's turning into a very large copper project and we are currently scoping, doing a study to develop this mine at a rate of around 25 million tonnes of ore a year.
"That could increase further as the ore body seems to be increasing in size. We are trying to fast-track to production by the end of 2013."
Earlier this month, First Quantum announced a $60-million purchase of Vancouver-based Antares Minerals, which owned the Haquira copper project in Peru.
"We have made them an offer which they have accepted. We can't be certain we own it until it closes in December, but we are hopeful that it will follow through. That is a very large copper ore body in Peru, which we will also be fast-tracking through evaluation and development."
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( Pierre Mac Orlan )
( Pierre Mac Orlan )