Mercuria targeting more investments after securing Mopani deal

MERCURIA intends to step up investment in mines as it continues to build its metals trading division, said the Financial Times.Citing Marco Dunand, Mercuria’s CEO, the newspaper said on Wednesday its metals division, started only last year, could rival in size its oil trading operations on which the firm’s success is based.“The metals market is still not completely mature . . . there are opportunities to co-invest in minority interests, or majority interests,” said Dunand at the Financial Times Commodities Global Summit on Tuesday. “We are looking at substantial investment in that sector.”Dunand said the company was looking not only at mines, but also at the logistics around mines and the entire metals supply chain.This week, Mercuria struck a $200m pre-payment agreement that will provide it with a supply of copper from the Mopani mine in Zambia, majority-owned by IRH, the Abu Dhabi mining group, said the Financial Times.The deal between Mercuria and IRH is the latest in a series of deals by the Swiss trader to secure access to the copper concentrate produced by mines, the newspaper said. These have included a joint venture with the Zambian government last year, and a marketing agreement with Congolese state-owned miner Gecamines earlier this month.This year, the company would move about 750,000 tons of copper cathode and about a million tonnes of copper concentrate, said Kostas Bintas, head of metals and minerals at Mercuria.The Financial Times quoted Bintas as saying: “The idea was to start big, from day one, and it has been executed as such. Because nine months later, we are 70 people, that proves the point”, said Bintas.Bintas, a veteran trader, joined Mercuria last year from Trafigura. Mercuria is aiming to rival  Trafigura and Glencore but it has other traders such as Gunvor and Vitol, traditionally competitors in energy products, in its slipsteam, said the newspaper.The post Mercuria targeting more investments after securing Mopani deal appeared first on Miningmx.Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Mining.com Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Mining.com