Brisbane-based RungePincockMinarco (RPM) played an integral role in the global team supporting China Molybdenum’s (CMOC) purchase of two world-class assets from Anglo American and Freeport-McMoran totaling approximately $4.1 billion. CMOC is acquiring Anglo’s niobium and phosphates business and a controlling indirect interest in Freeport’s Tenke Fungurume copper and cobalt mine in the DRC.
The Anglo assets include six resources and three reserves and are unique in that they include not just the mining and concentrate production but also the downstream product generation. Combined, the assets are the No. 1 producer of fertilizer products in Brazil and the second largest ferro-niobium producer globally (out of three majors).
The Freeport assets include a total of 18 separate resource areas (models) and 18 open pits with 67 push backs planned over the 37-year life of the project. The approximately 800 million metric tons (mt) of future open cut and underground resources, which are still at a scoping study stage, highlight the upside potential of this mine, which is the largest copper mine in the DRC.
“Our approach focused on blending requirements for all plants rather than step-by-step pit scheduling, which allowed multiple scenarios to be undertaken in a short period to test sensitivities (days not weeks),” RPM CEO and Managing Director Richard Mathews Matthews said. “The end result was a schedule, which was a proper reflection of what really happened on site all the way through the product value chain.”
