Exxaro Resources Still Plans to Exit Zinc “Completely”

Bloomberg reported that though Exxaro Resources Ltd. (JSE:EXX) must remain a 26-percent shareholder in Vedanta Resources plc’s (LSE:VED) Gamsberg zinc project until at least 2016, it plans to abandon the stake later.

As quoted in the market news:

Vedanta will build the $630 million mine in South Africa’s Northern Cape province and a $152 million refinery for the steel-making ingredient in Namibia, the company said Nov. 13. It needs a venture partner like Exxaro, which is controlled by black South Africans, to meet the conditions of its mining permit, a requirement meant to narrow economic disparities created by apartheid rule.

‘Exxaro divested from its zinc portfolio over the past two years,’ [Hilton Atkinson, a spokesperson,] said, referring to the sale of the Rosh Pinah mine in Namibia and the closing of its Zincor refinery in South Africa. ‘Our ultimate strategy is still to exit from zinc’ completely.

Click here to read the full Bloomberg report.