September 06, 2008

Zinifex to use USD 1.94 billion war chest for acquisitions

Platts reported that Australian miner Zinifex will pursue acquisition options aggressively in a bid to maximize production. Media reports have been speculating in recent months that Zinifex was looking to acquire Australian gold miner Oxiana.

Zinifex said that the initial public offering of its smelter business Nyrstar earlier this year has added significantly to its coffers and given the company substantial capacity to acquire assets.

Mr Peter Mansell chairman of Zinifex in a speech at the company's annual general meeting in Melbourne said that "We have a substantial war chest of more than AUD 2.2 billion which can be deployed to grow our mining business."