Central African Mining and Exploration Company

The Central African Mining and Exploration Company (CAMEC) was a mining company active in the Katanga Province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and in other parts of Africa. It was acquired by ENRC in 2009.

Central African Mining and Exploration Company
TypePublic
Founded2002 (listed)
DefunctNovember 2009
Headquarters
London
,
England
Area served
Africa

Early years

CAMEC listed on the London Stock Exchange's Alternative Investment Market in October 2002. It pursued an aggressive and successful program of acquiring and developing projects, finding little difficulty in gaining funding based on its strong track record. The company developed operations or undertook exploration in Mali (bauxite), Mozambique (coal), the DRC (copper and cobalt), South Africa (fluorspar) and Zimbabwe.[1] In July 2007, CAMEC said it planned to make an offer for the Canadian copper company Katanga Mining in exchange for shares in the combined company.[2] CAMEC withdrew the offer in September 2007, citing uncertainty due to a review of mining licenses being conducted by the DRC government.[3]

Mukondo

The Zimbabwean businessman Billy Rautenbach controlled Boss Mining, which owned 50% of the Mukondo resource. In a February 2006 deal, Rautenbach gained about 17% of the CAMEC shares when CAMEC bought Boss.[4] In 2007 CAMEC and Prairie International, the owner of Tremalt, decided to combine their Mukondo assets into a new holding company. Billy Rautenbach would be excluded from ownership in the new company due to the hostile relations that had developed between him and the DRC government.[5]

In November 2007 CAMEC and Prairie International announced plans to form a joint venture to extract cobalt from Mukondo, to reopen Kakanda concentrator and to control the copper cobalt SX/EW facility at Luita. In February 2008 the two companies announced that the Mukondo Mountain operations had restarted.[6] In July 2008 CAMEC said the Luita facility, due to be completed later that year, would be the largest of its kind in the world. The target was to produce 100,000 tonnes per year of copper cathode.[7] In July 2009 CAMEC announced a long-term agreement under which CAMEC would deliver its entire annual production of cobalt in concentrate from Mukondo Mountain to Zhejiang Galico Cobalt & Nickel Materials of China.[8]

Other projects

CAMEC had a stake in the Copper Resources Corporation but it was "disenfranchised", giving Metorex of South Africa an effective economic interest of 99.99%.[9] In May 2009 CAMEC said it had found bauxite on a property in Mali with an inferred resource of 439 million tons.[10] In July 2009 CAMEC said it was conducting a feasibility study at the Bokai platinum prospect in Zimbabwe, due to be completed by September. It expected to start production in 2012.[11]

In September 2009 the Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation (ENRC) of Kazakhstan made a £584-million cash offer for CAMEC.[12] The chairperson Phillippe Edmonds and CEO Andrew Groves both resigned when the deal was closed in November 2009.[13]

References
  1. "Central African Mining & Exploration Company Plc (CAMEC)". Refwin. Archived from the original on 25 April 2012. Retrieved 15 November 2011.
  2. "Camec plans to bid $1,9bn in shares for Katanga". Mining Weekly. 11 July 2007. Retrieved 15 November 2011.
  3. Olivia Soraya Spadavecchia (5 September 2007). "Camec Katanga bid withdrawn after DRC 'uncertainy'". Mining weekly. Retrieved 15 November 2011.
  4. Barry Sergeant (6 May 2007). "Copper/cobalt bull elephants square up in the DRC". Mining Newsletter. United Nations. Archived from the original on 2 November 2011. Retrieved 14 November 2011.
  5. Allan Seccombe (7 November 2007). "CAMEC enters new JV to house DRC assets". MiningMX. Archived from the original on 4 April 2012. Retrieved 14 November 2011.
  6. Christy van der Merwe (7 February 2008). "Camec, Prairie restart operations at DRC mine". Mining weekly. Retrieved 15 November 2011.
  7. Leandi Cameron (25 July 2008). "Camec to build multimillion-dollar SX plant in DRC". Mining weekly. Retrieved 15 November 2011.
  8. Amy Witherden (6 July 2009). "Daily podcast - July 6, 2009". Mining weekly. Retrieved 15 November 2011.
  9. Esmarie Swanepoel (3 April 2009). "Metorex increases stake in Copper Resources". Mining Weekly. Retrieved 15 November 2011.
  10. Mariaan Webb (5 May 2009). "Camec discovers 439Mt bauxite resource in Mali". Mining Weekly. Retrieved 15 November 2011.
  11. Chanel de Bruyn (9 July 2009). "Camec to start construction of new Zimbabwe mine this year". Mining weekly. Retrieved 15 November 2011.
  12. Mariaan Webb (18 September 2009). "ENRC to make £584m offer for Camec". Mining Weekly. Retrieved 15 November 2011.
  13. "Edmonds, Groves resign from Camec board after ENRC takeover". Mining Weekly. 11 November 2009. Retrieved 15 November 2011.
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