Weatherly denies rumours it is bust

THE London-based mining company Weatherly International has denied rumours that it was in liquidation over its copper mining operations in Namibia.

Convening an urgent media conference Friday afternoon before his return to London, Chief Executive Rod Webster said that rumours surfaced in Tsumeb recently about a possible closure of the company due to slumped copper prices were unfounded. Copper has been mined for over a century at Tsumeb and surrounding areas.”Weatherly bought the faltering Ongopolo mining company in 2006 and we invested some US$80 million into its operations, including Otjihase and Matchless copper mines outside Windhoek apart from Tsumeb and nearby Otavi,” Webster said.”We will not abandon our investment and our assets.Weatherly’s financial situation is sound.The fact that international copper prices recently dropped from over US$6 000 to US$3 800 per tonne is a concern, but we have some hedges in place.Until December 31 2008 the price for our copper remains fixed at US$5 000,” Webster said.Hans Nolte, who is the managing director of Namibia Custom Smelters at Tsumeb, a Weatherly subsidiary, said having separated the smelter from the company, buffered the dent in copper prices.”We are taking measures to increase efficiency and several outsourced contracts are not renewed so we carry out operations with our own employees,” Nolte said.”Some contractors, who operate sophisticated machinery at our operations, did not fulfil their mandate and target to train our workers and us now doing the training so our workers can take over and we save cost by cancelling some contracts.”Nolte said the company had had contingency plans in place for copper mining and the smelter.It was not the intention of the firm to to cut jobs.Weatherly’s annual copper production in Namibia is around 15 000 tonnes and the smelter processes about 20 000 tonnes of blister copper per year, with 50 per cent of the production coming from other countries such as Bulgaria and Peru.Copper has been mined for over a century at Tsumeb and surrounding areas.”Weatherly bought the faltering Ongopolo mining company in 2006 and we invested some US$80 million into its operations, including Otjihase and Matchless copper mines outside Windhoek apart from Tsumeb and nearby Otavi,” Webster said.”We will not abandon our investment and our assets.Weatherly’s financial situation is sound.The fact that international copper prices recently dropped from over US$6 000 to US$3 800 per tonne is a concern, but we have some hedges in place.Until December 31 2008 the price for our copper remains fixed at US$5 000,” Webster said.Hans Nolte, who is the managing director of Namibia Custom Smelters at Tsumeb, a Weatherly subsidiary, said having separated the smelter from the company, buffered the dent in copper prices.”We are taking measures to increase efficiency and several outsourced contracts are not renewed so we carry out operations with our own employees,” Nolte said.”Some contractors, who operate sophisticated machinery at our operations, did not fulfil their mandate and target to train our workers and us now doing the training so our workers can take over and we save cost by cancelling some contracts.”Nolte said the company had had contingency plans in place for copper mining and the smelter.It was not the intention of the firm to to cut jobs.Weatherly’s annual copper production in Namibia is around 15 000 tonnes and the smelter processes about 20 000 tonnes of blister copper per year, with 50 per cent of the production coming from other countries such as Bulgaria and Peru.