Glencore sticks while peers twist on coal By: Jan de Lange, miningmx.com, 02/12/2014
...Members of the Glenstrata team who spoke to Rapport were noticeably more upbeat than their peers at other mining companies.
When Glencore merged with Xstrata, it inherited the world’s largest ferrochrome smelters, which are based in South Africa.
“Yes, power is expensive, but its not more expensive than in China,” says one Glenstrata executive. “The problem is that the Chinese have a different approach. For them, it’s not necessarily about profit, but about the jobs. They want people to build smelters there to create jobs, then they buy the chrome from you.”
Mick Davis, Xstrata’s previous CEO, had planned to build a private power station in South Africa to ensure power supply to his smelters.
The Glencore team immediately squashed this plan when they took over the company. “It’s unnecessary,” says the executive.
“Medupi and Kusile [both of which are being built by Eskom] will start delivering power soon. We’ve visited the station, it is going to happen.”
“To tell the truth, within two years, South Africa will be sitting with a surplus of electricity again.”
