Former Anglo CEOs team up to buy Glencore’s iron ore project

FORMER Anglo American chief executives Tony Trahar and Mark Cutifani have teamed up with a group of investors to buy the Zanaga iron ore project in Republic of Congo (RoC).They will raise an initial $21.5m of which $15m will be used to buy Glencore’s controlling 43% stake in London-listed Zanaga Iron Ore Company (ZIOC), including the offtake and marketing rights connected with its project. The balance of the funds will be put towards corporate and project-level work for the next 12 months.The Zanaga project has long been on Glencore’s books. A feasibility study in 2014 forecast $2bn in capital expenditure for 12 million tons (Mt) a year in first phase production, increasing to 30Mt a year over time.Greymont Bay will lead a consortium of investors in ZIOC which also includes Mick Davis, the former CEO of Xstrata prior to its takeover by Glencore and Gagan Gupta, CEO of Arise which is involved in port and infrastructure development at RoC’s Pointe Noire.Greymont Bay also has Tony O’Neill, the former technical director at Anglo and long-time Cutifani collaborator as director as well as Phil Mitchell, former head of business development at Rio Tinto, and the New York-based private capital firm Heeney Capital Resource Partners.ZIOC will continue to be led by Martin Knauth, the company’s CEO, and Andrew Trahar, corporate development and investor relations manager who are also putting funds into the new investment plan.Greymont Bay’s investment is conditional on 20% of Zanaga project’s marketing rights be taken by Gulf Iron and Steel (GIS), described as “a consortium of strategic industry entities” interested in developing integrated steelmaking facilities in Asia and the Americas.Cutifani was instrumental in having Manara Minerals, the state-owned Saudi Arabian metals and minerals investor buy a 10% stake in Vale’s newly created Vale Base Metals of which he is also chairman. The founder of a Saudi investment fund focused on developing downstream processing plants in the kingdom is also listed as a ZIOC investor.Clifford Elphick, chairman of ZIOC said the transaction – which is by means of the fund-raise and then a buy-back of Glencore’s ZIOC shares – would pave the way for discussions with strategic partners ahead of assemling a constructon consortium for the project.“I am particularly excited about our new strategic partnerships with Middle Eastern and International groups, with industry expertise but also the commercial relationships needed to support financing and offtake agreements, adding notable value for all our stakeholders, including the Republic of Congo,” he said.ZIOC said the capital raise planned by the investment consortium could be scaled up to $23m.The post Former Anglo CEOs team up to buy Glencore’s iron ore project appeared first on Miningmx.Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Mining.com Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Mining.com