minesite article, page-6

TORONTO RESOURCE INVESTMENT CONFERENCE: Equinox is ready to go at Lumwana
Posted: October 06, 2008, 8:00 AM by Peter Koven
Mining, Toronto Resource Investment Conference 2008

It was a summer Equinox Minerals Ltd. would like to forget.

Just as the company was ready to start production at the Lumwana mine in Zambia, the biggest copper mine in Africa, it was hit by a transformer fire in July. That brought everything to a halt.

But the company has recovered from the incident, even if the stock price has not. Kevin van Niekerk, vice president of investor relations and corporate development, said the mine is finished and production will begin in December once the final commissioning is completed. In the meantime, everyone is just waiting with anticipation to get the mill started.

“I was joking that you can hear the tumbleweed blowing around, because Lumwana is basically finished,” he said.

While shares of all mining companies have been hit hard by the recent investor sell-off, Equinox has had a particularly rough time because of the fire. But Mr. van Niekerk said that the core institutions have hung in and still believe in the story, and he expects other investors to return once the mine starts up and Zambia holds its elections, removing some of the uncertainty.

Equinox pulled off another big coup last week, securing a US$80-million loan facility for Lumwana. That means the company does not have to draw down on its US$45-million contingent funding facility.

Mr. van Niekerk said it is proof that bank financing is still there for good companies and good projects no matter how bad the credit crunch is.

Peter Koven



To me EQN seems to be well and truly oversold does anybody have any information that says different ?

thanks Paul