ArcelorMittal sees strategic value in mothballed Thabazimbi mine
Steelmaker mulls reopening operations after taking full control of the asset
Having secured full ownership of the asset for a paltry sum, ArcelorMittal SA will decide in a few years whether it can restart operations at the Thabazimbi mine Kumba Iron Ore stopped two years ago. The Thabazimbi mine in Limpopo was jointly owned by the companies and was a source of iron ore for ArcelorMittal, which blended it with ore from Kumba’s flagship Sishen mine in the Northern Cape. After a failure of the pit wall in 2015, Kumba, an Anglo American subsidiary and Africa’s largest iron ore miner, decided to shut the marginal operation, triggering talks with SA’s leading steelmaker to buy the mine. Iron ore is a major ingredient of the steel-making process. “What we would like to achieve is to prolong the life of the mine. The town of Thabazimbi is dependent on that, but there has to be commercial [value] for ourselves,” ArcelorMittal SA CEO Kobus Verster said on Friday. “It’s very early days.” In February 2017, the parties said ArcelorMittal, which was responsible for 96% of...
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