South32 CEO Graham Kerr
Photo by: Bloomberg
PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Expressions of interest have already emerged for diversified miner South32’s manganese alloy assets in South Africa and Tasmania, despite the fact that a review into the future of these operations is still ongoing.
South32 CEO Graham Kerr said on the sideline’s of the company’s annual general meeting in Perth, that there was no clear timeline for the completion of the review, but that an ultimate outcome could be established by the first quarter of next year.
The miner in August this year flagged a review of the manganese alloy assets, which produced 223 000 t during the full year ending June, a 9% reduction on the previous financial year.
Kerr said that South32’s manganese alloy smelters had become more challenging, given that new smelters being developed in other parts of the world were making use of newer technologies, and often had subsidized power.
“If you think of the terminal markets such as India and China, they are building new plants that run more efficiently,” he said on Thursday.
Kerr said that the options under consideration include outright closure of both the South African and Tasmanian operations, a mothballing of operations until a price rebound, or the outright sale of the assets to interested parties that had "a different view of the commodity or a use of the equipment, and could make some money out of it".
“We want to ensure that we do this right, because it will impact our staff, the communities where we operate, and our customer and suppliers.”