Mining and Sustainable Development II - DTIE
Mining and Sustainable Development II - DTIE
Mining and Sustainable Development II - DTIE
You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles
YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.
<strong>Mining</strong><br />
the Western economies (primarily the US, Canada,<br />
South Africa <strong>and</strong> Australia), within fifteen<br />
years the focus of interest had moved to South<br />
America then south-east Asia.<br />
A survey of mining company chief executives<br />
by <strong>Mining</strong> Journal in last year’s Emerging Markets<br />
Supplement, confirmed the interest in Latin<br />
America (with five countries in the top ten). Africa<br />
(with four top-ten c<strong>and</strong>idates) did well at the<br />
expense of Asia (although Indonesia remained in<br />
ninth position despite the economic <strong>and</strong> political<br />
turmoil in that country). Not surprisingly, exploration<br />
expenditure has reflected these opinions,<br />
with 29 per cent of worldwide exploration budgets<br />
having been spent in Latin America during<br />
the second half of the 1990s.<br />
Unfortunately, the governments of all too many<br />
developing countries still see mining operations as<br />
an opportunity for quick returns rather than a<br />
chance to secure long-term benefits for the local<br />
economy. Moreover, even countries which are<br />
sympathetic to the long-term aspirations of mining<br />
companies can suffer from serious deficiencies<br />
in infrastructure. This will deter all but a combination<br />
of the largest mining company <strong>and</strong> a highly<br />
attractive ore deposit.<br />
The Chinese, as in most things, have a succinct<br />
way of expressing the choices open to mining<br />
companies when faced with problems in developing<br />
countries. The Chinese for ‘crisis’ is made up<br />
of two symbols – which can be translated as ‘danger’<br />
<strong>and</strong> ‘opportunity’. However, <strong>Mining</strong> Journal’s<br />
Emerging Markets survey noted that most chief<br />
executives remain reluctant to invest in countries<br />
with unstable political regimes or difficult business<br />
environments. In a list of 50 ‘emerging’ countries,<br />
Russia, Tajikistan, Angola <strong>and</strong> Albania were<br />
the least popular.<br />
The mining of gold has always mitigated country<br />
risk because of the relatively short mine lives<br />
<strong>and</strong> the ease of transporting the finished product.<br />
In its Strategic Report publication, Metals Economics<br />
Group notes that gold was the target for<br />
over half of the total exploration expenditure of<br />
some US$2.2 billion in 1999, with the next<br />
largest target, copper, attracting only half as much<br />
expenditure (US$460 million).<br />
Expansion<br />
The extra bureaucracy <strong>and</strong> costs associated with<br />
the trends outlined above will tend to favour larger<br />
corporations, which can better cope with the<br />
additional burdens imposed. The benefits<br />
brought about by size fall into three parts; the ability<br />
to provide central support for specialized tasks,<br />
the financial ability to make long-term commitments<br />
<strong>and</strong> the opportunity to reduce costs by<br />
undertaking tasks on a larger scale.<br />
With regard to the first type of benefit, every<br />
mine is having to pay increased attention to environmental<br />
matters, <strong>and</strong> only the larger companies<br />
are likely to be able to afford the central support<br />
that will be required to fulfill local design <strong>and</strong><br />
monitoring requirements. As far as the environment<br />
is concerned, such companies must seek to<br />
convince the local population that they (<strong>and</strong> the<br />
whole industry) are poachers turned gamekeepers.<br />
Similarly, with the exception of some gold <strong>and</strong><br />
diamond operations, most mines are long-life<br />
ventures involving the construction of considerable<br />
infrastructure (as at Batu Hijau). This<br />
inevitably requires detailed planning <strong>and</strong> careful<br />
negotiations with the local government. Neither<br />
is something to be undertaken lightly by small<br />
companies without the necessary experience.<br />
Indeed, governments of developing countries<br />
would be well advised to talk only with the larger<br />
companies. Smaller concerns are simply unable to<br />
guarantee long-term commitment <strong>and</strong> security.<br />
There are also the classical economic advantages<br />
of scale. Cost savings can be secured by sharing job<br />
functions between a larger number of operations.<br />
However, faced with the difficulties of exp<strong>and</strong>ing<br />
their operations through deposit exploration <strong>and</strong><br />
mine development, many chief executives have<br />
sought to grow their corporations by using the<br />
cheque book.<br />
According to Metals Economics Group<br />
(MEG), nonferrous acquisition activity (of over<br />
US$25 million each) reached US$8 billion in<br />
1999, bringing the amount spent over a ten-year<br />
period to US$56 billion – roughly half for 146<br />
gold projects /companies <strong>and</strong> half for 135 base<br />
metals projects/companies (of which just over half<br />
were related to copper). Although the value of<br />
deals recorded by MEG in 1999 was 76 per cent<br />
above that of 1998, it was still well short of the<br />
record US$12.4 billion spent on acquisitions in<br />
1996 (when gold prices peaked).<br />
Sweden’s Raw Materials Group (RMG) has<br />
somewhat different numbers. Quoting Ernst &<br />
Young figures, RMG puts the total volume of<br />
mining mergers <strong>and</strong> acquisitions last year at<br />
US$19.1 billion, compared with US$25.7 billion<br />
in 1998 <strong>and</strong> US$18.7 billion in 1997. This brings<br />
the total expenditure to US$110 billion since<br />
1995. Of this amount, 30 per cent was spent on<br />
gold (US$33 billion), followed by aluminium<br />
(US$21 billion), diversified metals (US$17 billion)<br />
<strong>and</strong> copper (US$14 billion).<br />
The top ten mining industry deals during the<br />
past five years have been:<br />
Buyer Target Amount Year<br />
(US$ billion)<br />
Alcan Algroup 4.7 2000<br />
Alcoa Reynolds 4.6 1999<br />
RTZ CRA 4.0 1995<br />
Alcoa Alumax 3.8 1998<br />
Anglo American Minorco 3.7 1998<br />
Inco Voisey’s Bay 3.3 1995<br />
Consortium CVRD 3.2 1997<br />
Anglo American AngloGold 3.1 1998<br />
Newmont Santa Fe 2.5 1997<br />
BHP Magma 2.4 1995<br />
As RMG notes, it is not surprising that the aluminium<br />
sector is at the top of the merger <strong>and</strong><br />
acquisition league because its smelters offer direct<br />
advantages of scale <strong>and</strong> the sites can be moved,<br />
unlike mines, around the world.<br />
Because every new mining alliance prompts<br />
others to follow (if a company is not aggressively<br />
growing it might become a target itself), corporate<br />
consolidation tends to come in waves. These<br />
waves are likely to be amplified when metal prices<br />
are moving higher – as has been the case for the<br />
past year. Certainly the equilibrium of several<br />
mining sectors was disturbed by a series of mergers<br />
<strong>and</strong> restructuring during 1999.<br />
For example, the new leadership of Australia’s<br />
largest mining company, BHP, has been implementing<br />
a series of divestments (30 deals totalling<br />
A$6.9 billion since 1998). The Melbourne-based<br />
group has withdrawn from the troubled Hartley<br />
platinum operation in Zimbabwe, which was<br />
forced to close, <strong>and</strong> in the US it closed down its<br />
loss-making copper operations. In Australia, the<br />
Beenup mineral s<strong>and</strong>s operation was closed, but<br />
talks with Rio Tinto with a view to merging the<br />
two companies’ Pilbara iron-ore operations fell<br />
through.<br />
In North America, the withdrawal of BHP<br />
spurred efforts to merge <strong>and</strong> consolidate amongst<br />
the big three remaining US copper producers –<br />
Phelps Dodge, Asarco <strong>and</strong> Cyprus Amax. Not all<br />
parties saw eye to eye, though, <strong>and</strong> in September<br />
1999 a major takeover battle ensued. Matters were<br />
further complicated when Grupo Mexico entered<br />
the fray, <strong>and</strong> the result was that the Mexican company<br />
captured Asarco for US$1.2 billion, <strong>and</strong><br />
Phelps Dodge had to be satisfied with Cyprus<br />
Amax for US$1.8 billion. Elsewhere in the copper<br />
sector, Nippon <strong>Mining</strong> <strong>and</strong> LG Metals of<br />
South Korea joined forces to become the largest<br />
copper refiner in Asia. In other sectors, Alcoa<br />
acquired Reynolds <strong>and</strong> Cordant in the US for<br />
US$4.5 billion <strong>and</strong> US$2.9 billion, respectively,<br />
<strong>and</strong> Franco-Nevada acquired Euro-Nevada for<br />
US$1.3 billion.<br />
In Africa, Gold Fields secured control of South<br />
African gold producer Driefontein from Anglo-<br />
Gold <strong>and</strong> minority shareholders early in 1999.<br />
Elsewhere in Africa, the protracted efforts by the<br />
Zambian Government to privatize Zambia Consolidated<br />
Copper Mines neared completion (it<br />
was finalized in April 2000) when it was<br />
announced in October that Anglo American was<br />
to acquire an 80 per cent interest in ZCCM’s<br />
Konkola <strong>and</strong> Nchanga Divisions.<br />
Also in October last year, Anglo American<br />
Corp., newly moved to London, took its first steps<br />
to establish a foothold in Australia when its AngloGold<br />
subsidiary launched a US$550 million<br />
friendly takeover of Acacia Resources, <strong>and</strong> shortly<br />
afterwards Anglo American secured a significant<br />
interest in Anaconda Nickel. Meanwhile,<br />
another partner in Anaconda, the Swiss commodities<br />
trader Glencore International, is rapidly<br />
emerging as a major participant in mining <strong>and</strong><br />
metal projects, not only in Australia (where its<br />
acquisitions have included Cyprus Amax’s coal<br />
mines) but also throughout the world, <strong>and</strong> it now<br />
rivals many major mining companies in terms of<br />
the breadth of its asset base.<br />
Mergers <strong>and</strong> acquisitions were rife in the coal<br />
sector last year <strong>and</strong> there were also divestments.<br />
Particularly significant was the announcement by<br />
Shell in September 1999 that it was offering its<br />
coal assets for sale. The decision was in line with<br />
UNEP Industry <strong>and</strong> Environment – Special issue 2000 ◆ 13