Reuters quoted Mr Sipho Nkosi chief executive of South African diversified miner Exxaro as saying the company is keen to diversify its portfolio to include copper and iron ore.

He said Exxaro sees more opportunities now to grow by adding new commodity businesses than it did during the financial crisis. He added that "Copper is one business that excites us, and we think it has got a good future. We are looking at various opportunities on the African continent and other areas."

Mr Nkosi said "There are quite a lot of projects that we are evaluating in various parts of the continent, declining to give details because Exxaro was still in talks with governments on potential ventures.”

Apart from copper, Exxaro plans to also invest in iron and to grow its energy business.

Exxaro whose main business is in coal, expects coal prices to stay at around USD 85 per tonne to USD 90 per tonne in the short to medium term, supported by a healthy supply-demand balance. But Mr Nkosi said the strong rand would keep on hurting its profits, with each 10 cent move in the currency hitting its operating profit line by ZAR 30 to ZAR 40 million.

Mr Nkosi also said he was upbeat about improvements in Transnet's rail line leading to the export terminal at Richards Bay, with record amounts of coal reaching the terminal in September.

South Africa is a major exporter of coal to power stations in Europe and Asia, but state owned logistics group Transnet has been struggling to transport all the material destined for export due to bottlenecks on its line.

(Sourced from Reuters)