Payback Time

Vedanta already turning Anglo’s discarded zinc assets to account.

- Martin Creamer

Diversified mining company Vedanta, which is being associated with the acquisition of 13% of the equity of Anglo American by Volcan Investments because of the link both these entities have with Indian billionaire Anil Agarwal, has done well with the South African assets it acquired from Anglo seven years ago.

On the $1 338-million Vedanta paid for Anglo’s zinc assets in 2010, the London-listed, India-rooted company achieved full payback two years later through decisive underground and near-pit mining. It is now managing to do what both Anglo and Gold Fields failed to do before it – build a zinc mine at Gamsberg, in South Africa’s Northern Cape, which has been 40 years in the waiting.

Vedanta’s face in these parts is that of Deshnee Naidoo, formerly of Anglo American, who has managed to shave close to $200-million off the project’s original capital estimate to take it down to $400-million.