To: Bob Staaf who wrote (123 ) 2/1/1998 7:45:00 PM From: David Regep Read Replies (2) | Respond to of 154
NCMI has been halted since Jan. 20 and I have not figured out why yet. I will try to sometime next week. Below is a newsstory that appears to be good news.---DavidR PERTH, Jan 29 (Reuters) - Great Fitzroy Mines NL plans to announce next week its intention to list on the Namibian and Johannesburg stock exchanges in a bid to raise about US$25 million to help develop the Haib copper project, the company's managing director Peter Prentice said on Thursday. The mine, located in Namibia near the South African border, is earmarked to produce about 100,000 tonnes of London Metal Exchange-grade copper cathode annually over a 25-year mine life, starting in mid-2000. ''We plan on making the announcement at a mining conference next week in Capetown,'' Prentice told Reuters. The listings are being managed through a major South African stockbrokerage, Prentice said. The funds would be used to supplement about US$150 million in raisings planned in New York and London later this year, he said. Total cost of the project is estimated at $560 million, Prentice said. Prentice said the company was studying financing options including ones based on debt/equity and high-yield bonds. The project's cash operating costs for producing copper are estimated at below US$0.50 a pound, but this will drop to ''somewhere in the low 40s ($0.40 a pound),'' taking into account co-production of 20,000 ounces of gold and 900,000 kg of molybdenum annually, Prentice said. Copper currrently fetches about $0.80 a pound in international markets. Great Fitzroy has a 20 percent stake in Haib while NASDAQ-listed Namibian Copper Mines Inc (NCMI - news) has 80 percent.