Reuters reported that South African miner Exxaro has invited bids for its stake in zinc and lead mine in Namibia and ownership of a refinery in South Africa in a move to exit the zinc business.

An official said that the assets up for sale include Exxaro's 50.04% stake in the Rosh Pinah mine and its wholly owned Zincor refinery.

Mr Riaan Smit manager for business growth said that the divestment process has formally commenced early May 2011. The diversified mining company had sent invitations to potentially interested parties. This will be followed by entering into confidentiality agreements with interested parties, followed by the issue of detailed information memoranda leading to indicative bidding running from mid May 2011 to mid June 2011.

Mr Smit said that it was too early to comment on the amount of interest in the assets. London listed Vedanta Resources Plc has been touted as a potential bidder for the Namibia mine.

Vedanta last year bought Anglo American's zinc interests for USD 1.34 billion including its Namibian Skorpion Zinc operation, the Black Mountain mine, the Gamsberg project in South Africa and Lisheen mine in Ireland. Vedanta paid USD 698 million for Skorpion Zinc which is adjacent to the Rosh Pinah mine.

(Sourced from Reuters)