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Gold/Mining/Energy : first quantum minerals FM on TSE -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Dan P who wrote (278)	1/8/2000 3:49:00 PM
From: joseph schevenels	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 385

Yes !! and a done deal: Saturday January 8, 11:27 am Eastern Time Zambia in mine deal with First Quantum, Glencore LUSAKA, Jan 8 (Reuters) - Zambia said on Saturday it had signed an agreement to sell its Nkana and Mufulira copper mining operations to Canada's First Quantum Minerals (Vancouver:FM.V - news) and Swiss trader Glencore International AG. ''The agreed purchase consideration is $43 million,'' Finance Minister Katele Kalumba and Mines and Minerals Development Minister Syamukayumbu Syamujaye said in a joint statement. The buyers will hold a 90 percent stake in a new company that will purchase the Mufulira division and Nkana mine, concentrator and cobalt plant from Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines (ZCCM) . ZCCM will retain a five percent free and five percent repayable carried interest in the new company, which will invest $154 million in the operations during the first three years. A further $340 million investment is subject to further evaluation of the assets, the statement said. Zambia said all parties were committed to concluding the deal by January 31. The government also hopes to conclude the sale of the Konkola, Nchanga and Nampundwe mines to mining giant Anglo American Plc (quote from Yahoo! UK & Ireland: AAL.L) by the end of this month. The two deals would conclude Zambia's effort to privatise its money-losing copper mines, which have seen annual output fall to about 250,000 tonnes from a peak of over 700,000 in the early 1970s. Kalumba said he hoped Western donors would resume financial assistance to the southern African country following the conclusion on the mine deals. Most lenders have withheld balance of payments support until the mines privatisation programme was completed. The Netherlands said earlier this week that it would free $10 million support because it believed the process was largely done. We should see the volume pick up in the next couple of days and hopefully the price as well . Joe