Vedanta buys Anglo's zinc assets

10th May 2010 07:06

Mining company Anglo American is to get out of the zinc business, selling its portfolio of zinc assets to Vedanta Resources.Vedanta is paying $1,338m for Anglo American Zinc on an attributable, debt and cash free basis.Anglo American owns the Skorpion mine in Namibia, the Lisheen mine in Ireland and a 74% interest in Black Mountain Mining in South Africa, which holds 100% of the Black Mountain mine and the Gamsberg project.Anglo American said the sale is consistent with its previously announced strategy of focusing on “its portfolio of world class, large scale, long life mining assets in those commodities where Anglo American holds advantaged positions.”Vedanta's chairman, Anil Agarwal, said the purchased assets would complement the company's portfolio. “We intend to rapidly develop Gamsberg, one of the largest high quality zinc projects in the world, leveraging our world-class large project development expertise,” Agarwal said.