FQM reportedly drops plans to sell off minority stakes of its Zambian mining assets

First Quantum Minerals Limited has reportedly put off plans to sell minority stakes in its Zambian copper mines.

This is after a US$1 billion gold-streaming deal eased balance sheet pressures.

According to Bloomberg news report monitored from Mining.com on Tuesday, early last year, the company said it was considering offloading minority interests in its Kansanshi and Sentinel operations in Zambia, after it was forced to shut its flagship mine in Panama in late 2023.

Chief Executive Officer, Tristan Pascall, was quoted saying the deal this month to sell part of Kansanshi’s gold output to Royal Gold Inc. has helped change the need to divest.

“Whilst we’re definitely open to partnerships and we continue to look at that, we are not looking for a transaction in Zambia,” Pascall said. “We’re not looking at the Zambian minority stakes’ sale.”

First Quantum had been in talks with companies including Japanese trading house Mitsui & Co. and Saudi Arabia’s state-backed Manara Minerals Investment Company over acquiring a minority shareholding in the Zambian assets.

The gold streaming transaction was the biggest such deal globally in the last 10 years, according to RBC Capital Markets, which advised the firm.

Together with debt refinancing and two copper prepayment agreements totaling US$1 billion, that has shored up First Quantum’s balance sheet.

The commissioning of a US$1.25 billion expansion at the Kansanshi copper mine also means the Zambian operations will again positively contribute to cash flow, Pascall said.

As the US$10 billion Cobre Panama mine is shuttered, First Quantum’s Zambian operations provided more than 90 percent of the firm’s output last year.

They also account for more than half of the production in Africa’s second-biggest copper producer.

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