PALABORA MINING COMPANY
led by the Industrial Development Corporation ( IDC ) of South Africa Limited and China ’ s Hebei Iron & Steel Group . The investment case had to be sold to the new shareholders . The fact that much of the infrastructure was in place impressed the new shareholders and they supported the Lift II project despite the fact that their primary interest had been the magnetite , of which there was a 250 million tonne stockpile at the mine .
In November 2014 the board approved the Lift II investment programme of more than a billion dollars says Fouché : “ We took the view that though prices were depressed we had enough financial carry to cover a lot of the upfront work from our own balance sheet , and went to the market for some of the funding .” At the same time , with the copper price on the floor contraction set in among other copper projects as some were shelved , mothballed or abandoned .
“ We have taken a positive view of the long term copper price . The supply and demand position projected post 2020 indicates that copper prices would potentially be
66 August 2016