JOHANNESBURG – The Chairman of Vedanta Resources Plc, who is also Anglo American’s biggest shareholder, said on Monday he had convinced Anglo not to sell off key assets in South Africa.
Indian industrialist Anil Agarwal has an almost 20 percent stake in Anglo through his family trust Volcan Investments and has played down speculation that he is seeking a tie-up with Anglo.
But in an interview with Reuters, Agarwal made it clear that he has not been a passive shareholder.
“I always believed that South Africa has a lot of potential, and Anglo management may not have always believed that … and they wanted to sell some assets,” he said.
“When I became the biggest shareholder I advised them (not to sell). And I am very pleased that they have not sold those assets. And personally I was right because the share price is now up 50 percent and the profits are getting better.”
In the midst of the commodity slump, Anglo said it would sell 16 assets including its South African business Kumba Iron Ore to focus on copper, diamonds and platinum.
But last year the company said it would no longer be a forced seller of its bulk businesses after metal prices rebounded.
Anglo’s share price has risen as much as 50 percent since Sept. 20 when Agarwal’s Volcan Investments said it was raising its stake and is now about a third higher, according to Thomson Reuters’ data.Agarwal said he wanted Anglo to focus on the Indian market.
“We have 1.3 billion people in India … India is a huge market for them, they can sell all the coal there, they can sell platinum there, they can sell iron ore there, they are selling 80 to 90 percent of diamonds there.”
Agarwal said he saw his role as a “facilitator” of Anglo’s strategy and felt he had good “chemistry” with the management.
“I can only facilitate them, I am not in the management, they have very good management,” he said.
With Vedanta, Agarwal said its KCM copper business would boost its cobalt production with a possible refinery as it looks to meet soaring demand for the metal’s for the lithium-ion batteries that power electric cars.
There is a global scramble on to find sources outside of the Democratic Republic of Congo, a country racked by instability and violence, which is currently the main cobalt source.
Cobalt is often a by-product of copper and Agarwal said this was the case with Vedanta’s Zambia copper operations but the company was looking at “a parallel project focused on cobalt.”
He said the company currently was looking at the feasibility of how to set up a refinery for cobalt to produce it in “a very high tech, sustainable manner.”
Source: Reuters
Can someone explain what is by product? Cobalt sometimes it’s ore body is found on its own while other times it may lie just on top (Hanging Wall) of the copper ore body. It’s never within the copper ore body. When cobalt hasn’t got a market, the areas containing cobalt are not touched or if it’s on top of the copper, a cut off is established.
@Ndanje Khaki:
The cobalt at Nchanga mine is contained within the copper ore body. This is recovered into the copper concentrate and finally reports into slag at Smelter. Your assertion above is not correct – all minerals do not exist in isolation but mixed. What determines the name of the ore body is the mineral with the highest abundance or value.
In this case cobalt is by-product because the main mineral is copper – cobalt is recovered as a by-product through the same process.
And message for HH:
Sell KCM to Anglo when you come to power in 2021 – Then you will be selling KCM to the Owner and the same majority shareholder of Anglo (Anil Agarwal). I DOUBT IF HE WILL ALLOW ANGLO TO BUY KCM SINCE HE HAS THE FINAL SAY OF DECISOINS AT ANGLO.
Think before you act.
This Indian idiiiiot Anil Agarwal is always bragging ….When are Africans going to learn not to sell their resources to foreigners ..look at Anil he and his Indian clan will be forever wealthy whilst Africans will wallow in poverty.
Jay Jay- There I totally agree with you! Especially those of us who were raised through the same mines, its a shame on us and forever a stain on Zambian government!
Chief Thief reaping where he sowed little or nothing at all. Stupid *****.
Jay Jay, we had ZCCM managed by our zambian engineers before it was privatised and used to post huge loses. This Indian man came in and within three months, KCM was profitable. It’s a sign that we not ready to run anything because we are comfortable being employed.
KC you are right profitable but for who?
Engineers know nothing about running a business just like Doctors!!
That Indian man raised money to buy the money from that mine in 3 months….its like me buying a hotel from your broke self then getting the keys and paying you after 3 months with money raised from the hotel customers.
It was a bad deal…look at the Botswana they have 50/50 deals where emphasis is on skills training.
Ba jay jay you respond to almost every topic, what surprises me is you have never told us how best something can be done, but only insults no alternative solutions. Does it mean the school you went to, they don’t teach critical thinking and solution management? You insult more every time but don’t say anything on solutions why?
Who have I insulted? And i will tell you why i used those words…
Zccm was destroyed by government interference, l worked for them but UNIP destroyed it. Ask anyone who worked in that company. I remember when the general manager would award production bonus and pay date announced, usually Friday was the preferred day. Francis Kaunda the then Zccm chief executive officer would fly from Lusaka to Chingola on a Wednesday or Thursday to cancel the bonus and get the money to Lusaka. Just imagine how sad that used to be. Now that the mines are in private hands they are profitable. Simple as that.
Everytime this Anil is drunnk he brags about KCM..
The taxes ZCCM was Made to pay are nowhere near the tax incentives given to these “infestor”. Not to mention the burden of supporting stupid non mining related ventures dreamt up by UNIP like Njanji commuter trains in Lusaka, mulungushi travellers, professional football, dry cleaners and travel agencies. But no re-investment in minerals exploration and mining. Absolute mixture of stupidity and madness!
Bashi Chite and Kapoma Kabaso I agree with you. I also worked for ZCCM and saw the rot first hand. I hope IDC does not follow the same route. The other problem is the mind set of us Zambians. Steal from the company and were it comes to business we want to work alone. We like short term investments with quick returns. Mining is long term returns and high risks. Most of us zambians do not like that. One privatisation I am proud of is the management buyout of CEC formerly CPC aka ZCCM POWER DIVISION, that was a good one.
Now let us buy all the listed shares of first quantum on the lusaka stock exchange own it and stop mourning for once.
HH!
Don’t generalize! Some doctors like me know how to run businesses, young man!
You think Doctors are appointed your SG Mwila at PF H/q ..really laughable.
As usual. The African DNA is programned to jealousy.
Did any African bid for KCM ? Did any Zambian who hides his wealth in Cayman Islands or Panama submit a bid ? No way. Then when someone else buys it and makes a killing the jealousy kicks in
Foreigners this and foreigners that !!
If we stopped our drinking and laziness there would be no space for foreigners
Here is an Indian that now used his KCM prifits to now become the biggest shareholder of Anglo and De Beers. The Oppenheimer empire !
Congratulations sir. Continue working hard and buying up more companies
As for us ? We will spectate and enjoy our tujilijili.
BTW. The Zambian built NOTHING !!
He harkens back to the days when UNIP controlled the mines. Blah Blah Blah
KK just grabbed and forcefully nationalised the mines. Those mines were built by mzungus. No muntu has ever built a copper mine
KK took the mines and turned it into his personal piggy bank. He used the profits to subsidise living costs and keep him in power. He did not reinvest in repairing machinery. At the end it all screwed up like any company that was nationalised in Africa. Losing $1m per day and bankrupt ! IMF forced mine sale to stem the loss
1960s mzungus producing 750,000 tons. When Chiluba took over copper was 268,000. Good old days, my foot !!!
Good government jobs at the expense of the treasury !!
Mwape: I don’t like blanket statements such as yours.If I was a policy-maker I know exactly how I would shame people like you.
From the comments I can see that we have very brilliant people in this country but where is the problem kanshi?????
Take an example: You need about US$100 Million to set up a processing plant for the entire Black Mountain in Kitwe. At X % Copper and Y % Cobalt grade, we can produce enough copper and cobalt to meet the entire civil service montly wage BILL.
And what has been the Govt decision on the Black Mountain…… my word.
Ask Donald Trump for an answer.
Thanks