Vedanta Resources Plc says its copper division saw total mined metal production of 21 000 tonnes in 2016 which was 33% lower year-on-year.
It attributed the reduction to lower production from its Nchanga underground mine in Chingola, which was placed on managed care and maintenance.
KCM had contributed 4 000 tons of copper last year.
At the tailings leach plant, production reduced by 25% year-on-year owing to throughput constraints at the mill and lower feeds from current tails.
This is according to the company’s financial statement for the year ending December 31,
Meanwhile, Vedanta Resources Plc on Monday approached investors to raise as much as $1 billion to refinance its debt, two people aware of the development said.
“They started the book running process on Monday. The company has around $1 billion worth of debt which is maturing in the next fiscal (FY18) and they are raising the bonds to refinance these repayment obligations,” one of the two people cited above said, requesting anonymity.
Vedanta has hired investment banks JP Morgan, Standard Chartered and other banks to manage the sale, he added.
A spokesperson for JP Morgan declined to comment on the development.
Emails sent to Vedanta and Standard Chartered did not elicit any response.
The sale comes after ratings agency S&P Global Ratings on Monday revised Vedanta Resources’ foreign currency long-term corporate credit rating to ‘B+’ from ‘B’.
“We raised the rating to reflect our expectation that Vedanta Resources’ operating performance will improve over 12-18 months owing to higher commodity prices and the firm’s ramp-up of its aluminium operations,” said S&P Global Ratings credit analyst Mehul Sukkawala in a note released on Monday.
S&P anticipates Vedanta Resources will continue to have adequate financial flexibility to manage refinancing over the period, the note said.
According to data from the ratings agency’s note, Vedanta Resources has several debt repayment obligations.
“The firm has bank loan maturities of $1 billion at the Vedanta Resources holding company due in FY18 and $500 million in FY19, in addition to bond maturities of about $2 billion in FY19,” the S&P note said.
Nothing good comes out about KCM and this Agarwa, fake infest-or. The government should be serious and repose this mine and sell it to prominent mining companies and not this circus we are subjected to everyday. For your own information, the price of copper is on an upswing and will remain so for the next 2 years also. Just wait for three more days when Trump is sworn in and you will see how markets will react. They can borrow eve 1 trillion dollars but we don’t want them here.
Vedanta Infestors bumboclaat!
What happened to those “annual profits of at least 500 million US dollars” you were boasting about and caught on camera in 2014?? What more does my president EL want to see at KCM before he can act on these useless Indians? Does he want a repeat of Binani saga in Luanshya in 1998-2000?
Government should repossess KCM has suggested by Dr Habazoka, what are they still waiting for? Varndeta has never invesited any money in KCM, they are just using the capital that Anglo America left.
What’s the deal with Vedanta? They are investing in Zambia using Zambia to borrow and refinance debts that surely do not arise from their business in Zambia. And what do we get out of this? Another western master wiping out our rightful returns on our copper!?
The situation is quite simple to understand. Vedanta has checkmated GRZ. Head Vedanta wins and tale GRZ loses.