Zinc producer Nyrstar sells some mining assets to Glencore for $26m

Zinc producer Nyrstar (EBR:NYR) is moving ahead with its plans to move away from mining by offloading a multimetallic mine in Peru and various claims in Quebec to subsidiaries of Glencore (LON:GLEN).

The transactions, worth $26 million, are part of the mining assets sale process formally launched in January this year, which includes the completed sale of the El Toqui mine in Chile and the announced sale of the El Mochito mine in Honduras, the firm said in the statement.

The announcement comes on the heels of Nyrstar’s decision to place a new chief executive officer at the helm, Hilmar Rode, less than two years after Bill Scotting had assumed the top position.

Scotting, who steered the company away from a venture into mining, had previously headed steel giant ArcelorMittal’s mining unit. He joined Nyrstar in July 2015 and had kicked off the sale of the company’s struggling mining division.

Nyrstar expanded into the mining sector in 2009 to secure its supply of raw materials, but a string of operational issues led to the division making a loss.

Sales come on the heels of Nyrstar’s decision to place a new chief executive officer at the helm, Hilmar Rode, less than two years after Bill Scotting had assumed the top position.

Zinc spot prices have rallied in the last 12 months with the base metal climbing to a nine-year high in London on Wednesday, boosted by new infrastructure spending in China, as well as an emerging supply gap and a run-down of stock.

LME zinc settled at $2900 a tonne on the LME Wednesday, after touching $2985, its highest price point since October 2007.

Source: www.mining.com