Zambia could win its bid to buy the Mopani Copper Mine stake from Glencore
Glencore has been locked in a bitter dispute with the other owners of the mine its plan to mothball Mopani’s operations. However, lots of questions remain as it remains unclear how the cash-strapped government, which last week defaulted on a Eurobond interest payment, would finance any deal. (Zambia state-owned ZCCM Investments Holdings is trying to acquire. ZCCM-IH currently has 10% of Mopani, with Glencore holding 73.1% and Vancouver-based First Quantum Minerals Ltd. 16.9%.)
Glencore has assigned a value of $704 million to the operations. This would go some way to recoup impairments of $1.14 billion at Mopani which contributed to Glencore posting a first-half loss.
Secretary to the minister of mining Barnaby Mulenga expects the deal to be announced in the coming weeks and said “The resource attracts money, so the issue of financing is the least of the worries for the Zambian government,”
Glencore shares have been on the rise recently but this is also due to a recent rise in commodities prices and not only the matter mentioned above.
