A Kumba Iron Ore employee carrying out an inspection
Anglo American plc holds a 65.30% shareholding in Kumba Iron Ore, a leading supplier of seaborne iron ore, which listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange following its unbundling from Kumba Resources in November 2006. Kumba operates two opencast mines in South Africa – Sishen mine and Thabazimbi mine. The combined reserves of these mines now stand at 1.293 billion tons of high quality iron ore. In addition, there is the new greenfields Kolomela mine being developed. The mine will start producing in 2012, to reach full production of 9 Mtpa in 2013.
Kumba, listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, produces a leading quality lump ore and is the only haematite iron ore producer that beneficiates 100% of its product. Export ore is transported via the Sishen-Saldanha Port. The rail and port operations are owned and operated by the South Africa 'parastatal' Transnet. Kumba is well positioned to supply the high growth Asia-Pacific and Middle East markets and is also geographically well positioned to supply European steel markets in the light of an expected decline in lump ore supplies from other sources.
Operations
Kumba operates two mines - Sishen Mine in the Northern Cape, which produced 41.3 million tonnes (Mt) of iron ore in 2010, and Thabazimbi Mine in Limpopo, with an output of 2.1Mt. Its third mine, Kolomela (previously Sishen South), that will produce 9 Mtpa, is under development in the Northern Cape. In 2010, Kumba exported more than 80% of its total iron ore sales volumes of 43.2 Mt, with 61% of these exports destined for China and the remainder to Europe, Japan, South Korea and the Middle East.
Visit the Kumba Iron Ore website