For the first time in many years, Kumba Iron Ore is talking about external growth as it scrambles to extend the life of its two South African mines through technology and exploration. While there might not be any pressing urgency to find takeover targets, the option is firmly on SA’s largest iron-ore miner’s strategy checklist because its two mines in the Northern Cape have just 14 years of life left, a time frame the Anglo American subsidiary wants to extend as much as possible by exploring on and around its tenements as well as finding technological solutions to unlock ore in vast low-grade dumps at its flagship Sishen mine. Kumba CEO Themba Mkhwanazi was wary about giving any detail on what sort of external growth the company was contemplating, time frames or even commodity, let alone geography. "It’s about step-ups which are opportunistic and which, strategically, will be close to our core business. "That’s really exciting for us to be thinking like this because we now have the ...
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