PanAust Buys Glencore Stake in Frieda River Copper Project
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PanAust Ltd., the Australian operator of copper, gold and silver mines in Laos, agreed to pay as much as $125 million for Glencore Xstrata Plc’s majority stake in a Papua New Guinea project to add long-term production.
Frieda River could produce 100,000 metric tons of copper and 160,000 ounces of gold annually and have a mine life of 18 years, the Brisbane-based company said today in a presentation. PanAust will need development capital of $1.5 billion to $1.8 billion, it said, compared to Xstrata’s 2012 estimate of $5.6 billion to develop a larger mine.