Anglo seeks to expand base metals in the DRC

The world's third biggest mining group Anglo American Plc recently opened an office in Congo as part of a new push to find big copper, nickel and zinc deposits in Africa, a top official said on Monday.

"We're very interested in the DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo)," Godfrey Gomwe, chief operating officer of the group's South African unit, told Reuters.

"What we look for is scale and we think the DRC is the kind of place where you can get large deposits that would interest our size."

Anglo has targeted seven other African countries for base metals exploration, including Zambia, Angola and Burkina Faso, he added in an interview on the sidelines of a metals conference in Namibia.

The group currently produces the bulk of its copper in South America, but is seeking to expand in Africa, where increasing political and economic stability plus reformed mining legislation is making the continent more attractive to mining investors.

Currently Anglo has scant base metal operations in Africa with its main one the Skorpion zinc mine in Namibia.

The group would consider a range of options for entering new countries, from greenfields exploration to takeovers, but working with mid-sized firms already on the ground is probably the most likely entry method.

"The junior players are usually an excellent source for resources, because they can usually take a project only up to a certain point because they don't have the capacity," said Gomwe, who is also finance director of Anglo South Africa.

In Congo, Anglo opened an office the Congolese copper belt city of Lubumbashi in recent months and in Kinshasa the group has started working out of the office of diamond group De Beers, in which Anglo holds a 45 percent stake, he added.

The main criteria for new base metal mines in Africa would be that they are big enough to meet the guidelines for the Anglo group.

"If you look at most of the projects we invest in, they are multi-million dollar projects. It would have to be a deposit that would generate significant resources and significant production."

Anglo is also considering a return to Zambia, from which it withdrew in 2002.

Zambia mainly produces copper, but the big operations in that sector are already largely taken.

"This is early days exploration and we're looking. It would be more on the nickel and zinc side, the non-traditional things. It's really not copper," Gonwe said.

Other countries Anglo is targeting in Africa for base metals are Burundi, Namibia, South Africa and Tanzania.