Personally I'm not concerned that a pe of 5 was made on the smelter sale. The key is what is done with the cash and how quickly.
The smelter business is low margin and carries a number of risks eg potential litigation from pollution etc. By taking $2 billion cash it's earnings are covered for several years at least. In the meantime if that cash can be reinvested into good mining assets then it should be able to make much more for shareholders than if left in smelters. Also don't forget that even as cash in the bank it's probably still making a quarter of the smelter earnings for the company anyway at say 5-6%.
ZFX
zinifex limited
