[miningmx.com] – SOUTH African mines minister, Mosebenzi Zwane, has revived the notion that a black-owned national mining champion could emerge as firms divest from South Africa.
Zwane was quoted in a Bloomberg News article that the sale of Anglo American’s 69.7% stake in Kumba Iron Ore could encourage the emergence of “new black economic empowerment champions” – a view first popularised by Zwane’s predecessor, Ngoako Ramatlhodi in 2014.
“There is still a huge amount of wealth in white hands and not so much in black hands,’ Keith Levenstein, CEO of EconoServe SA, told Bloomberg News. “The government is saying to Anglo ‘if you want to sell your businesses, why not sell them to black investors?'”.
Anglo American said on February 16 that it could either sell or spin-out (unbundle) its stake in Kumba, but that the process could take up to 18 months to complete, largely as it sought to make the company debt-free before divestment.
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