I won't be around today, probably a good thing. Looks like it...

I won't be around today, probably a good thing. Looks like it will be ugly. I'll post more stories this evening when I'm back.

Hang in there folks.

KKR



Firms shrug off Congo review concerns, shares slide
By Eric Onstad

5 November 2007

Source:Reuters News

JOHANNESBURG, Nov 5 (Reuters) - Investors punished shares in some mining companies operating in Congo on Monday, including Australia's Anvil Mining , after a preliminary report from a government-appointed panel advised that 24 of 61 mining contracts should be cancelled.

Officials of some of the firms, however, dismissed concerns about the leaked report, saying the Democratic Republic of Congo government, not the panel, would make the final decision about the contracts.

The government first announced plans for a review of the legality and fairness of mining contracts early this year but the process was not launched until June and the commission's work has been delayed on several occasions.

The final version of the report is expected to be presented to Congo's Ministry of Mines on Tuesday, a commission member told Reuters in Kinshasa.

Shares in Anvil, which is also listed in Toronto , tumbled 11.9 percent in Australia to A$18.50 after the report said the firm's rights to the Dikulushi copper and silver mine should be canelled.

Of 61 mining contracts under review, a preliminary report by the commission said 37 contracts, including those with Freeport McNoRan Copper & Gold Inc , BHP Billiton and Nikanor , needed renegotiating while the remaining 24 should be terminated. (For more, see [nID:nL0384821])

Anvil said in a statement to the Australian Securities Exchange that it had received written communication from neither the mining ministry nor the commission regarding renegotiation or termination of its contracts.

"It's all hearsay, speculation and the rest of it, there's nothing official, so we're not really wanting to get into debate about what is essentially speculation in the media," Chief Executive Bill Turner told Reuters by telephone from Australia.

FIRST QUANTUM

The preliminary report also called for a 2004 decree authorising the creation of KMT Plc, of which First Quantum Minerals Ltd is the major stakeholder, to be repealed.

First Quantum shares in London slid 4.5 percent to 4,700 pence by 1100 GMT compared to a 4.0 percent loss in the UK mining index <.FTNMX1770>.

"The committee is making its recommendations and the government will then decide how to react to those rcommendations. Until it's gone through that process, we don't really have a comment," First Quantum president Clive Newall told Reuters from London. "However this whole process pans out, we'll deal with it in the appropriate way."

First Quantum owns 65 percent of KMT Plc, the Congo government holds 5 percent, state mining firm Gecamines 12.5 percent, the World Bank 7.5 percent and South Africa's Industrial Development Corp 10 percent.

Newall said the firm had a good relationship with the government and launched its new Frontier open pit copper mine in the DRC a few months ago, which cost $226 million in capital.

"It's certainly the biggest new investment in the DRC for many decades," Newall said. "We're a major taxpayer and royalty payer in the DRC and that's growing all the time."

Katanga Mining Ltd , which is spending $425 million to rehabilitate the Kamoto copper mine and processing plant, said it had unofficially heard that its contract was due to be renegotiated in the preliminary report.

"We understand that we're in the 'change' category, but it's not something that we're going to comment on because it's not an official document," spokesman David Orford said from London.

"We're, like everyone else, waiting for the official verdict from the government."