Anvil Mining Plans to Raise $100 Million to Triple Congo Output
2006-02-14 02:26 (New York)
By Stewart Bailey
Feb. 14 (Bloomberg) -- Anvil Mining Ltd., which digs copper
in the Democratic Republic of Congo, plans to raise as much as
$100 million in a share sale to finance the tripling of
production in the next two years.
The company, based in Perth, Australia, will increase copper
output by about 20,000 metric tons this year, all from its new
Kulu mine, and by a similar amount in 2007 from its Kinsevere
project, both in the southern Congo, Finance Director Craig Munro
said yesterday. The company produced 19,000 tons last year from
its Dikulushi mine.
``We're talking some pretty serious money,'' Munro said
yesterday in an interview in Lubumbashi in the southern Congo
province of Katanga. ``It's a good time to do it.''
Anvil was one of the first international companies to
venture into the Congo after former President Mobutu Sese Seko
was overthrown in 1997. Now, after the end of the war that
followed his ouster and which left almost 4 million Congolese
dead, the company is looking to expand in a region that has about
10 percent of the world's copper reserves.
The company ``will probably'' sell shares to raise the funds
it needs, he said. Anvil may also raise some debt, Munro said.
Anvil expects to find more copper at Kinsevere and Kulu and
plans to raise annual production to as much as 100,000 tons of
copper in five years, Munro said.
--Editor: Wallace |
