The Business of Mining

Top Stories of the Week:

• Vale starts to fight back against tax rulings
  • Vale announced its plans to appeal to the governments intent to charge $5.6bln worth of taxes on foreign earnings. The clash with the government promises to be the first real test for the new CEO Murilo Ferreira.
  • Mr. Ferreira took over the leadership of the company from Roger Agnelli, who was not reelected partly based on a disagreement with the government (which is control Vale via state-controlled shareholders) over $2bln taxation.
  • Sources: Vale press release; Financial Times; Bloomberg
• Rio Tinto assumes full control of Oyu Tolgoi
  • Rio Tinto increased its ownership of Ivanhoe from 49% to 51%, giving it full control over the flagship Oyu Tolgoi copper project in Mongolia, the world’s premier copper development project.
  • Sources: Rio Tinto press release; Wall Street Journal; Financial Times

Trends & Implications:

• Vale estimates the impact of a review of the tax code on the company’s earnings to be approx. 4-5% of earnings. Taxation regimes around the world for specifically iron ore and copper mining are reviewed to make the countries benefit more from ‘extreme’ profits, which could be seen as a temporary phenomenon. However, the key issue in Vale is facing now is a debate about double taxation; paying taxes over profits after taxes realized in countries where the company is operating.
• Rio Tinto’s control over Ivanhoe will help the company to put in place its management structure and have the project managed by some of its top project developers. Gaining full control of the project in this stage will help Rio Tinto to build the project according to the company’s standards, preventing costly and above all time-consuming future transitions in the operating structure. The global standards that enable effective project management more and more set the world’s largest miners apart from the ‘small’ mining firms with only a few operating assets. Very much like GE has become known as a great ‘project management company’, the world’s largest miners are more and more developing into ‘mine development’ companies in which development speed is the key success factor and navigating politics in developing countries is a key skill.

©2012 | Wilfred Visser | thebusinessofmining.com

Top Stories of the Week:

• BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto deliver record production in Pilbara
  

  This was another record-breaking year in the Pilbara with both quarterly and full year iron ore production. Record global iron ore shipments of 239 million tonnes in 2011 were below production due to extreme weather conditions experienced in the first half of the year. Despite this, Rio Tinto’s Pilbara ports operated at above annualised capacity rates and shipped record volumes of 61 million tonnes in the fourth quarter and 225 million tonnes for the full year.

  While scheduled maintenance, tie-in activities and the wet season in the Pilbara are expected to affect Western Australia Iron Ore production in the second half of the 2012 financial year, full year production is now forecast to marginally exceed prior guidance of 159 million tonnes per annum.

• Sources: Rio Tinto press release; BHP Billiton press release; Financial Times

Top Stories of the Week:

• Australia’s Mineral Resource Rent Tax approved by lower house
  • The new 30% tax on profits above A$75mln for coal and iron ore projects has been approved by the lower house and is now only to be approved by the senate. The tax has been debated for approx. 2 years. Initially proposed by Kevin Rudd, the former premier, the regime has been tuned down and now includes arrangements to stimulate and protect investments.
  • Sources: Wall Street Journal; Financial Times; Australian Treasury MRRT explanation
• Vale appoints new CFO: Tito Martins
  • Tito Martins, Vale’s head of base metals, has been appointed as the new CFO of the company. Several executive management positions changed in the first major move of the new CEO to strengthen control. Mr. Martins was involved in the acquisition of Inco, which turned into Vale’s base metals division which was led by Mr. Ferreira.
  • The change of top management of Vale was started by appointing Murilo Ferreira CEO in the place of Roger Agnelli after the presidential elections in Brazil. One of the reasons of conflict between government and Vale was the building of a fleet of iron ore carriers in Asia rather than domestically. This fleet was in the news this week as Chinese ports are refusing to host them, trying to protect the interest of incumbent shipping lines.
  • Sources: Vale’s press release; Financial Times
• Rio Tinto bids for uranium explorer
  • Rio Tinto convinced the board of Hathor Exploration, a Canadian uranium explorer, with a C$654mln bid. The bid is approx. 5% higher than rival Cameco’s bid. Hathor owns rights to various uranium deposits in the Athabasca basin.
  • Sources: Financial Times; Rio Tinto press release; Hathor Exploration board recommendation

Trends & Implications:

• The changes at Vale should prepare the company for further changes to the business environment for the major iron ore producers. The introduction of the MRRT mainly hits Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton, but all three majors are figuring out how to react to increasing uncertainty about demand. Asian steel producers are pushing for adaptations to the recently changed pricing mechanisms, moving the pricing system to shorter term contracts. At the same time various Asian players are starting to buy iron ore assets in the price range of hundreds of millions to several billions of dollars; threatening the dominance of incumbents.
• Rio Tinto is trying to buy into uranium at a moment where industry shares are depressed because of the nuclear disaster in Japan last year. The bid for Hathor signals Rio’s management still believes in the potential of the industry. The company says it accounts for 16% of the world’s uranium production from mines in Australia and Namibia.

©2011 | Wilfred Visser | thebusinessofmining.com

Top Stories of the Week:

• Peabody and ArcelorMittal get MacArthur; then ArcelorMittal gets out
  • Only 2 days after PEAMcoal, the vehicle set up by Peabody energy and ArcelorMittal to buy Macarthur, announced it obtained a majority interest, Arcelor decided to get out of the combination. The company will sell the 16% of Macarthur it had to Peabody. Peabody had teamed up with ArcelorMittal because an earlier bid had not gained the support of the major shareholders.
  • Sources: Reuters; Financial Times; ArcelorMittal press release
• Vale suffers $2.8bln exchange rate hit
  • Vale posted disappointing results for the 3rd quarter: the weak Brazilian real compared to the US dollar hit the company hard, iron ore spot prices dropped 27% q-on-q, and production volumes were lower than planned.
  • Sources: Vale press release; Financial Times; Wall Street Journal

Trends & Implications:

• The move of ArcelorMittal out of the Macarthur acquisition is a surprising sign of hesitance and uncertainty about the development of the global steel market. The company prefers cashing $700mln over having to pay an additional $1.2bln to get 40% of the Australian coal miner. It still plans to build an iron and coal mining business to increase self-sufficiency. US steelmakers are also struggling and iron ores prices have plummeted in expectation of falling steel demand.
• Exchange rates remain a very important factor in the competitiveness of miners because sales for miners around the world are typically in US dollars, irrespective of the currency in which costs are incurred. As shown in the exchange rate graphs below the Brazilian real has been hit harder than the Australian dollar, key currency for iron ore production of Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton, in the past quarter.

©2011 | Wilfred Visser | thebusinessofmining.com

“Brazilian mining company Vale SA said Thursday it struck a two-year collective labor accord with all of the country’s mining workers’ unions. The accord will give Vale employees an 8.6% pay rise effective November and a further 8% pay increase in November 2012, Vale said in a statement. In addition, the employees will get a bonus each year of 1,400 Brazilian reais ($744.68), the company said.

Observations:

• Out of 71 thousand of Vale’s employees (Dec 31 2010) approx. 60 thousand work in Brazil.
• The agreement holds the middle between Vale’s initial 7.5%/y offer and the union’s ’15%/y plus bonuses’ demands. In previous years Vale gave a 7% increase annually. Inflation rate in Brazil has been around 5-6% over the past years.

Implications:

• Creative bonus systems will become a more important part of the mining remuneration policies because skilled resources and talent are becoming increasingly scarce in the mining industry.
• Brazil’s National Mining Plan foresees growth of the domestic iron ore production of 58% from 2011 to 2015. Current high ore prices will help to finance aggressive expansion, but the legislative processes around development and the shortage of workers form two important obstacles to realize this objective.

©2011 | Wilfred Visser | thebusinessofmining.com

“Cynthia Carroll, chief executive of Anglo American, has downplayed speculation that the multinational miner is on the hunt for acquisitions, saying that bid prices in the mining sector have been ‘too high’ for the company to enter the fray.

Observations:

• Anglo American has not made any large acquisitions since 2008, when it bought several iron ore assets in Brazil. Of the 5 large diversified miners the company has been least active in large scale M&A over the past 10 years, as depicted below (click on image for larger version).

Implications:

• If the acquisitions would be paid in shares, the current low share prices would hinder acquisitions (large dilution of ownership). However, with the current large operating profits acquisitions are mainly paid in cash.
• Valuation of companies is done in various ways, based on standalone company value and additional financial and operational synergies of a change of control, all leading to different results: a ‘true value’ of a company can never be determined, as the value differs per acquirer and valuation assumptions are debatable. However, the fact that various companies are acquiring targets in Southern Africa which would have a better operational match with Anglo American (= higher synergies) implies that Anglo is more conservative in its valuation, being cautious to overpay.

©2011 | Wilfred Visser | thebusinessofmining.com

“Brazil’s Vale has dropped its $1.1bn offer for Metorex, a central African copper and cobalt miner, clearing the way for China’s Jinchuan Group to complete a $1.4bn takeover that would establish the state-owned miner in risky frontier markets for metals.

Observations:

• Metorex is a South African copper and cobalt miner with operations in Zambia and Congo. The company’s board has recommended the shareholders to accept Jinchuan’s offer, paving the way for the takeover of the company. Vale withdrew its inferior bid quoting capital allocation rigor as the reason for not doing a higher bid.
• Jinchuan is a government owned non-ferrous metals miner. The company has been rumoured to plan an IPO for many years. End of 2010 the company announced a small acquisition in South African platinum mining and furthermore the company bought a Canadian developer of a mine in Tibet.

Implications:

• The acquisition by Jinchuan is an example of Chinese company’s high willingness to pay for foreign assets. The project is certainly not worth more to Jinchuan than to Vale, which owns assets nearby which could cause synergies. However, Chinese companies are willing to pay a high premium to grow internationally, positioning themselves as state champion in a consolidating industry.

©2011 | Wilfred Visser | thebusinessofmining.com

“The price of iron ore will remain above $150 a tonne for at least the next five years, according to Vale, the top miner of the ­commodity. The bullish prediction by Guilherme Cavalcanti, finance director of the mining group, is the latest contribution to a debate on the outlook for the iron ore market that has polarised analysts and investors.

Observations:

• Vale’s finance director explains he is not concerned about high inflation in China as mainly the consumer goods price inflation is high, while construction activity still ensures full offtake of Vale’s production.
• Commodity swaps indicate the market expects prices to decline steadily over the coming years.

Implications:

• While Vale expects Asian demand for iron ore to stay strong, the companies mainly sees restrained production because of delayed development projects (often because of environmental permitting issues) and weather influences as the key driver for high prices. Together with the high inflation in equipment costs and the relatively weak dollar iron ore prices will for a prolonged time be very elastic to supply.
• Vale’s share price is lagging behind the price of its main competitors over the past years, resulting in higher cost of debt and reduced ability to perform share based M&A. With Vale’s large exposure to the iron ore price the company would benefit strongly from higher iron ore price expectations in the market.

©2011 | Wilfred Visser | thebusinessofmining.com

“Vale’s finance chief said the Brazilian miner would invest in development programmes in Guinea in an attempt to safeguard a $2.5bn mining concession and avoid making a large pay-out to the African country’s new government. In spite of still being vulnerable to a review of mining licenses in Guinea, Guilherme Cavalcanti said that Vale could win the government’s approval for its Simandou iron ore project that it shares with rival Rio Tinto by paying for education and agriculture in the communities where it mines.

Observations:

• The Simandou deposit is divided into 4 blocks: Vale controls blocks 1 and 2 with the Benny Steinmetz Group (BSG) as minority shareholder; Rio Tinto controls blocks 3 and 4 of the Simandou deposit, working together with Chalco. In an earlier stage Rio Tinto held title to the full deposit, but the Guinean government cancelled this deal.
• In a review of mining licenses announced in March the Guinean government requires a minimum of 33% of ownership of strategic mining projects in the country to increase government control.
• Rio Tinto struck a deal on the redistribution of ownership at the end of April, setting up a long term phased process of acquisition of ownership by the government. Furthermore the company agreed to a conditional one time $700mln payment to the government and promised to develop a railway to export the ore via a Guinean port.

Implications:

• The social projects promised by Vale are a mere hygiene factor in the negotiations about transfer of ownership. The government will clearly expect any operating partner to take an active role in community development. However, Vale’s experience with large scale operations in developing areas in Brazil and Mozambique might help to gain trust.
• Most likely Vale will agree on a conditional and phased deal similar to Rio Tinto’s agreement with the government. The agreement will be designed to make any payments or ownership deals conditional on crucial milestones and actions by the government. Vale will still need to decide on a way to export the ore, either negotiating to use the railway build by Rio Tinto, or setting up the infrastructure to export via Liberia.

©2011 | Wilfred Visser | thebusinessofmining.com

Murilo Ferreira

The world’s second largest mining company has changed the man at the top. Roger Agnelli, who led the company for almost 10 years, was replaced by Murilo Ferreira last month. Though Agnelli grew the company into a global force in the industry, he did not manage to please the Brazilian government sufficiently. As a result the new president, Dilma Rousseff, pushed for a change. What is on top of the “To Do”-list for the new CEO?

An analysis of Vale’s latest annual and financial reports, the press conference to introduce the new CEO, investor presentations, and the news about the company in the latest months yields a list of 10 issues that are likely to be at the top of Ferreira’s list of priorities.

The list holds strategic, operational, financial and relational activities, each of which are scored in terms of importance and urgency. Priority 1 on the list is to build strong government relationships; priority 10 is to expand the metallurgical coal business in Latin America. Read on for the full list of priorities. For those readers working with Vale: don’t hesitate to forward the list to mr. Ferreira.

1. Build government relationships

Mr. Agnelli grew the company, but he did not manage to please the Brazilian government. The government controls the majority of the voting shares, and hopes to use Vale as a means to stimulate the domestic economy. The key task for mr. Ferreira will be to build strong government relationships without giving in to government requests which would hurt general shareholder value.

2. Develop strategic messages

A first step for each CEO after taking office is to get the key messages to be repeated over and over again to investors and employees. Especially Vale’s communication to the investor world has historically been poor. Selecting the key points to tell to the world the coming year(s) and tuning the communication and communication support is an important task during these first months.

3. Discuss tax & royalty claims

Related to the first point of building government relationships: the government claims a total of $16.0bln tax over the period 1996 to 2008 plus some $4.7bln in royalties (CFEM). Furthermore, Vale’s current effective tax rate is some 10% below official tax rate because of various tax incentives, for which the continuation is not sure. Reaching agreement with the authorities about these claims and the future tax incentives is crucial for the share price to increase.

4. Build global culture, integrate & decentralize

One of the key points mentioned in mr. Ferreira’s first press conference as CEO was the change of the company style towards a more decentralized system in which team work is incentivized more. Next to driving execution mr. Ferreira will need to be the living example of a global cultural change, in which each part of the business feels equally valuable.

5. Manage vertical integration in Brazilian steelmaking

The next (potential) issue with the Brazilian government is Vale’s role in the Brazilian steelmaking industry. The government wants to create a strong vertically integrated player, and therefore needs Vale to cooperate with players like Gerdau and Usiminas. Although it is in Vale’s best interest to stimulate domestic demand for iron ore to offset the disadvantage in transportation costs to supply the Asian market versus Australian mines, the company wants to stay a pure miner. Developing and discussing strategic options for the domestic industry will be an important task for mr. Ferreira to demonstrate his leadership.

6. Solve roadblocks for development execution

Vale plans to invest $17.5bln in new project development this year, but various projects run the risk of delay. Most roadblocks have to do with demands by federal and regional governments (e.g. the temporary suspension of the Rio Colorado project in Argentina), signalling the requirement to more proactively involve governments in planning procedures.

7. Manage operating cost pressures

A key competitive advantage to Vale is the low cost base of its operations in Brazil. The risk of lower iron ore prices forces mr. Ferreira to try to keep costs down at a time of cost inflation. Especially the management of the energy matrix (energy costs account for over 15% of COGS) and of outsourced services, which are sensitive to Brazilian wage inflation, will require management attention.

8. Compete for position in China

A key task for any big mining firm this decade is to fight for pole position in supplying the number one growth market: China. Mr. Agnelli secured various lucrative supply deals, but Vale did not yet sign significant partnerships. Mr. Ferreira has limited experience with the Chinese market and will thus need to spend time on getting to know the key players and developing relationships which are important for both future development and future supply contracts.

9. Transform internationalization organization

Vale still is a very much Brazilian company: out of the 120 thousand workers (incl. 40% contractors) 80% is located in Brazil. However, this Brazilian focus is starting to hinder the company in attracting international investors, customers, and employees. Even press conference in which new CEO was presented was conducted in Portuguese, certainly posing an obstacle to some investors. Appointing CEO with experience of working in North America is step in the right direction, but mr. Ferreira will need to do more to improve the international image of his company.

10. Build metallurgical coal business in Latin America

Partly driven by the need to diversify the company’s revenue base (68% of revenue still comes from iron ore & pellets, with an even higher percentage when looking at profits), partly driven by the need to build the domestic steel industry, Vale needs to gain access to metallurgical coal close to home. The company operates thermal coal mines in Brazil, but metallurgical coals needs to be imported. Exploration in Colombia is promising, but more needs to be done to build the coal business.

Sources: Vale annual report 2010, Vale CEO press conference May 2011, Vale investor presentation February 2011

©2011 | Wilfred Visser | thebusinessofmining.com