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Gold/Mining/Energy : ZINC The base metal. News and Views. Symbol Zn -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Stephen O who wrote (452)	7/20/2001 7:53:28 PM
From: Stephen O	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3270

Scudder's Raffan on Pasminco Mine Sale, Possible Buyer: Comment Sydney, July 20 (Bloomberg) -- Nick Raffan, who helps manage the resources stocks in Zurich Scudder Investments' A$1.9 billion ($980 million) portfolio of Australian equities, comments on an announcement by Pasminco Ltd., the world's No. 1 zinc miner and refiner, that it will sell all its mines to pay back debt after almost $1 billion has been wiped off the value of its shares since 1999. On sale of mines: ``It shows that their financial position was worse that what the market generally believed. The best outcome we can hope for is that the stock falls so low that someone comes forward and buys the company, debt and all. On potential buyers: ``You could split it out for some of the smaller base metals companies in Western Australia, or if Anglo American wants to be in zinc, it may look to buy selected assets. The Budel smelter (in the Netherlands) would potentially be a good asset. ``My view would be that the current economic value of the company would be about A$1.1 billion. At that price, you would be buying some of the assets, such as the Broken Hill and Rosebury mines for nothing. ``Century is a A$1 billion dollar operation, but at current zinc prices and having to outlay money for the upfront stripping of the deposit, you're getting a lot of negative cash flow in early years.'' --Jason Gale in Melbourne (613) 9228-8701 or at j.gale@bloomberg.net through the Sydney newsroom /kg