News

February 27, 2008

Albidon Looks To Deploy Imminent Cashflow On New Projects In Africa

By Alastair Ford

Zambia may be raising a few eyebrows in the mining and wider business community with its new tax arrangements, but when you’re just in the final stages of completing a showcase project that ought to put a net pre-tax US$150m on to your cashflow statement, there’s not too much cause for alarm. That’s the happy situation that Albidon is in at the moment - just a couple of months away, says managing director Dale Rogers, from putting the first nickel ore from the Munali project into the concentrator. “Which”, he continues, “is nice”.

It sure is. The plan is to ramp up fairly rapidly during the rest of this year, so that by 2009 the Munali operation reaches full capacity. At that stage it will be producing 8,500 tonnes of nickel in concentrate per year, with scope for further increases from neighbouring ground that’s currently under investigation. Apart from the re-rating in Albidon’s shares that Mr Rogers hopes the cash flow will bring once production begins in earnest, the transformation in a newly cash-rich Albidon will...