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Vedanta Urges Quicker Konkola Development to Meet Targets
May 23, 2011, 7:01 AM EDT
By Anthony Mukwita
(Updates with CEO comment in second paragraph.)
May 23 (Bloomberg) -- Vedanta Resources Plc, billionaire Anil Agarwal’s copper producer, said its Konkola Copper Mines unit in Zambia must speed up a deep-mining venture to reach output targets.
The project must be “accelerated,” Chief Executive Officer Mahendra Singh Mehta said in a company newsletter, without specifying a timeframe. Konkola said in November it’s targeting 400,000 metric tons of copper cathode a year by March 2014. Vedanta’s Zambian output was 217,000 tons last fiscal year.
Vedanta needs funds to hasten Konkola’s development as Asian demand for the metal buoys prices. Konkola plans to sell shares in an initial public offering this year, Agarwal said on May 5. The IPO may take place as soon as next month, the London- based Sunday Times reported yesterday.
Copper futures last week had their biggest weekly gain in more than a month as global stockpiles shrank 2.8 percent to a three-month low. Prices have jumped 40 percent in the past year, driven by demand in China, the largest consumer of the metal.
The Zambian deep-mining project may boost annual production of copper ore at the Konkola mine to 7.5 million tons from 2 million tons by sinking a new shaft to depths of about 1,500 meters (4,900 feet), according to Konkola’s website. Zambia is Africa’s largest copper producer.
--With assistance from Firat Kayakiran in London. Editors: Amanda Jordan, John Viljoen