Toronto listings bring miners $450m

Over the past 18 months, Western Australian companies Anvil Mining, Equinox Minerals, Moto Goldmines and Paladin Resources collectively raised about $450 million from North American investors to fund big mining projects in Africa.

The four companies all listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange because of the lack of investor interest in Australia.

They enjoyed a strong run during 2005 and into 2006, but in recent months their share price performance has been patchy, with Equinox suffering a large fall.

The biggest success story to date has been Paladin, which is close to commissioning its first uranium mine in Namibia.

The $125 million Langer Heinrich project has run very smoothly and the company is aiming to start developing its second project in Malawi next year.

Once Langer Heinrich starts production, Paladin will start reaping the benefits of record uranium prices (see page 16).

Anvil Mining is best known as the subject of a controversial Four Corners program regarding the use of its trucks by troops in Congo.

Less well known is the company’s operational and financial achieve-ments in Congo, where it runs two copper mines and has just commenced development of a third mine.

Anvil recently reported a net profit of $US22 million ($A30 million) for the June 2006 quarter, up from just $US200,000 in the previous corresponding period.

This followed a tripling of copper production to 11,098 tonnes.

Moto Goldmines is another company operating in the Congo to have suffered from that country’s volatile political history during the past decade.

However, Moto chief executive Klaus Eckhof said many of the world’s biggest mining companies have returned to Congo in the past year, encouraged by the stability brought by president Joseph Kabila.

Moto is close to completing a pre-feasibility study on the Moto gold project in the north-east of Congo.

Mr Eckhof said recent drilling had provided very encouraging results, which he said would allow the company to proceed to a bankable feasibility study next month.

A geologist by training, Mr Eckhof said he expected to retire from Moto next year to allow others to pursue development of the project.

This follows the company’s decision to delist its shares from the Australian Stock Exchange.

Equinox Minerals is aiming to develop the giant Lumwana copper project in Zambia and, like several other mining companies around the globe, has suffered big cost blowouts.

Its shares have been hammered lower since it announced that the total cost of the project had increased to $762 million, up from an estimated $483 million when it completed its bankable feasibility study last October.

The bad news was partly offset by positive drilling results and an increase in copper prices, but the net result has been a fall in its share price to about $1.50 from a high of nearly $2.70.