JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - The chief executive of Vedanta Resources said on Wednesday the mining company had no plans to cut zinc output but could adjust the development of its South African operation depending on prices.
Weak commodities prices prompted heavyweight miner and trader Glencore to cut 500,000 tonnes of zinc production, or 4 percent of global supply, a move that sent zinc prices rallying about 10 percent.
"Our businesses are fairly low cost so a rational decision would be for us to keep producing as long as these are businesses that can generate a commensurate cash return," Tom Albanese told Reuters on the sidelines of 2015 Joburg Indaba, a mining conference held in the commercial capital Johannesburg.
Vedanta's Ireland zinc mine will reach the end of its life in November, while Australia's Century mine, one of the world's biggest sources of zinc, will cease production this year, cutting 5 percent of global output.
The London-listed Vedanta plans to invest $782 million over three years to develop the Gamsberg mine in South Africa and its Skorpion zinc refinery in Namibia to produce high-grade zinc.
"If prices are lower and stay lower then we will probably rephrase our Gamsberg project in a different way than if prices were high," Albanese said.
Also Read
The Gamsberg project would be developed on a modular basis which will be reviewed every six months depending on market conditions, the chief executive of Vedanta's Zinc unit Deshnee Naidoo said.
(Reporting by Zandi Shabalala; Editing by James Macharia and David Evans)