Shares in the London-listed Kazakhstan copper miner Kazakhmys soared by a fifth today as its controversial biggest shareholder and former chairman, Vladimir Kim, said he would personally buy its inefficient deep mines.
Kim, who like many Kazakh billionaires is a close ally of the country’s dictatorial president Nirsultan Nazarbayov, is likely to have received the nod from the government that it would support him in running or restructuring the mines. Their losses have been a heavy drag on the company’s share price.
The mines to be sold, which have a negative value according to analysts, employ about 40,000 workers and in some areas are the biggest employer, making redundancy programmes politically difficult.
Kazakhmys will be left owning only the efficient open cast mines, including two that are projected to produce two-thirds of the company’s copper with just 3,000 employees.
Kazakhmys shares jumped 41.8p to 265.1p.
