Gaborone, Dec 17
The Australian company Discovery Metals Ltd today announced it will suspend copper mining in Botswana within the next six months, due to a deteriorating world price of the metal.
An internal study on economic feasibility of their investments in the field of Boseto, northwest Botswana, reflected a declining market perspective due to the value of the metal has dropped by 1,000 dollars per ton (or 15 percent) since January.
The recent investment of major corporations such as Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton to amass new portions of a global market worth 140 billion dollars has put pressure on more discreet producers such as Discovery.
Since last June, the company based in Sydney and stock prices in Shanghai had been warning of an unbudgeted increase in its costs of operation in cash after excess global supply of the product. The group's shares fell today up to 35 percent, according to the digital magazine Mining Weekly.
Botswana is the largest diamond producer in the world and a haven for luxury safari tourism. It has been one of the fastest growing economies in Africa since the 1970s.
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