Johannesburg - Glencore is set to sell two copper mines after receiving unsolicited bids for the assets, it said on Monday.
The global miner, which has recently seen its share price eroded and has decided to also cut its zinc output, notes in a statement to shareholders that these deals may not come off.
It says it has started the process of selling its wholly-owned Cobar copper mine in Australia and Lomas Bayas copper mine in Chile.
Glencore says potential buyers could bid to buy either one or both of the mines.
Cobar is a high-grade underground copper mine and a concentrate plant in central western New South Wales, Australia. The plant puts through about 1.1 million tons or ore a year and produces around 50 000 tons of copper in concentrate a year.
Lomas Bayas is a low-cost, open pit copper mine which is located in the Atacama desert, 120 kilometres north-east of the port of Antofagasta, Chile.
Glencore explains the low-grade copper ore mined at this facility is processed by heap leaching and converted to copper cathode after processing through the SX-EW plant. The Lomas Bayas operation produces some 75 000 tons of copper cathode a year.
No prospective price was disclosed for the assets and Glencore says it will update shareholders should a sale happen.
On Friday, the mining giant said it would cut zinc production by a third because current low prices “do not correctly value the scarce nature of our resources”.
Glencore, which is battling low prices and high debt that has seen its share price eroded recently, said its operations in Australia, South America and Kazakhstan would be affected by the decrease in zinc production.
The company’s decision to suspend operations at Lady Loretta in Australia and Iscaycruz in Peru, and reduce production levels at George Fisher and McArthur River in Australia as well as at various mine operations in Kazakhstan could lead to 1 500 job losses.
Glencore says it is one of the world’s largest global diversified natural resource companies and a major producer and marketer of more than 90 commodities. It has more than 150 mining and metallurgical sites, oil production assets and agricultural facilities.
IOL