Obscene Exploitation. Crime Against Humanity. No Shame. John Leslie, Daniel Gertler, Daniel Kurtzer,Beny Steinmetz,de Moerloose

Nikanor and Katanga Mining merge to create $3.3bn African giant

Robin Pagnamenta

Nikanor and Katanga Mining announced an agreed merger yesterday that will create one of the world’s largest independent copper and cobalt producers worth about $3.3 billion (£1.6 billion).

The merger will bring together two adjacent copper and cobalt mines owned by the companies in the Katanga region of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The merged group, which will retain the name Katanga Mining, said that it aimed to be producing 400,000 tonnes of copper annually by 2011 – making it Africa’s largest copper producer – and 40,000 tonnes of cobalt, making it the largest producer of the metal in the world.

John Leslie, executive chairman of Nikanor, claimed the deal would create an “African champion” with “fantastic assets”. He said the merger would lead to cost savings as well as increased production and an improved, phased approach to investment in the mining complex in the south of Congo.

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Related Links

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• Katanga Mining to mount defence against bid

The new group will be led by Arthur Ditto, president, chairman and chief executive of Katanga, while Stephen Jones, chief financial officer of Katanga, will become the CFO.

Under the terms of the deal, Nikanor shareholders will receive 0.613 new Katanga shares and $2.16 in cash. Nikanor shareholders will hold 60 per cent of the merged company.

A separate, exclusive supply agreement has been reached with Glencore, the international raw materials group, to bulk purchase the copper and cobalt supplied by the mine.

The deal represents a blow for Camec, a rival Congolese mining group run by Phil Edmunds, the former cricketer, which owns a 22 per cent stake in Katanga but had failed in an earlier effort to take control of it. “We have noted the announcement and are reviewing our options in relation to our shareholding,” a Camec spokesman said.

Mr Ditto said the deal would “offer the opportunity for a dramatic increase in value for shareholders of both companies” and was “a transaction where the whole is definitely greater than the sum of the parts”.

The group will be listed on the London Stock Exchange and the Toronto stock exchange. The companies also claimed that the deal was unlikely to be threatened by a review of mining licences being undertaken by the Government of Congo.

Mr Leslie said the merger had the “explicit support” of Martin Kabwelulu, Congo’s Minister of Mines.

Congo, which has 10 per cent of the world’s copper reserves and less than 1 per cent of its production, has attracted a flood of foreign investment since the end of the country’s civil war in 2003, in which millions died.

Mr Kabwelulu said: “Congo’s Government welcomes the merger as proof of the confidence of the business community in the future of Congo’s mining sector.”

The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2008, but is subject to shareholder and regulatory approvals. About 74 per cent of the Nikanor shareholding is supportive as is 48 per cent of Katanga.

Katanga is being advised by CIBC World Markets and its legal advisers are Cassels Brock & Blackwell in Canada, Norton Rose in the UK and Appleby in Bermuda. Nikanor is being advised by JPMorgan Cazenove.

Resource riches

— The rich natural wealth of the Congo maintains a huge allure for Western companies, just as it did in the 19th century

— The Democratic Republic of Congo has vast deposits of copper, cobalt, uranium, diamonds and a host of other metals that have attracted a wave of foreign investment since the end of the country’s six-year civil war in 2003

— The country’s potential as a producer and exporter is enormous – in the mid1980s the state mining company Gécamines was producing as much as 470,000 tonnes of copper a year

— Production dropped to virtually nothing during the late 1990s, and by 2005 it was still producing only 14,000 tonnes

— The future of mining in the country is unclear because the Government is reviewing all licences that were issued in uncertain circumstances during the war years

— Katanga and Nikanor claim that their proposed merger has official support from Kinshasa, but other firms including Anvil Mining and First Quantum Minerals are thought to be under threat

	ElParedon	View profile	(1 user)  More options Feb 10, 1:28 am

THOU SHALT NOT COVET

Before his assassination on January 16, 2001, Laurent Desire Kabila-the
President of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)-made a deal with the
Gertler gang that would play out in favor of the current President Joseph
Kabila and, it seems, be a central factor in relation to both Congo's
ongoing war and the bloody warlord's battle in Kinshasa in March 2007.19

Back in 2000, former Congolese president Laurent Kabila offered a monopoly
on Congolese diamonds, and 88% of the proceeds, to Gertler's International
Diamond Industries (IDI) in exchange for Israeli military assistance to his
new government.20 Top Congolese military officials apparently flew to Israel
in 2000 to negotiate the deal. Gertler pledged military assistance to
President Laurent Kabila through top Israeli officials.21

The original Gertler-Kabila deal fell through after Laurent Kabila was
assassinated for not cooperating with the Great White Fathers of industry
(January 2001), but Gertler and Leibovitch and their disciples formed
another company, Dan Gertler International, and advanced their Congo plan.22
By 2002 Gertler's company was the leading exporter of Congolese gems,
controlling a diamond mining franchise worth about $US 1 billion annually.23

In 2003, the mighty Congolese diamond parastatal Societe Miniere De Bakwanga
(MIBA)-which has been forever controlled by the Great White Fathers in
Belgium, Israel and America-signed an exclusive contract with Gertler's
startup company, Emaxon Finance International. The deal involved Israeli's
Foreign Defense Assistance and Defense Export Organization (SIBAT), and
high-level Israeli defense and intelligence officials. Gertler and his
buddies reportedly bribed Congolese officials and Angolan generals who, on
and off, have commanded Angolan Army troops protecting Kinshasa, Congo's
capital.21,24

Security for mining operations in Congo is provided by exclusive security
companies like Overseas Security Services (OSS) one of the many DRC
interests of Belgian billionaire tycoon Philippe de Moerloose. A member of
the Kinshasa elite, de Moerloose supplies jets and other presidential toys
to DRC President Kabila. In 2006, President Joseph Kabila's campaign
helicopter was at the centre of a legal battle involving Philippe de
Moerloose.25 De Moerloose's companies operated in Mobutu's Zaire from at
least 1991, backing state terrorism and Western corporate plunder that was
rendered invisible by the Western media. De Moerloose is also an adviser to
European Union (EU) Commissioner-and diamantaire-Louis Michel.

Dan Gertler and Philippe de Moerloose were, reportedly, the only two white
men who attended the wedding of Joseph Kabila and the two clearly share
interests in "security" provided by OSS at MIBA and elsewhere in Congo. The
April 2003 secret agreement signed between the Gertler/Steinmetz company
Emaxon Finance and the Kabila government involved MIBA and two de Moerloose
companies, OSS-Congo and Demimpex, and other firms.

Overseas Security Services (OSS) operations are apparently grounded in the
experience of top expatriate security operatives formerly involved with the
biggest security firm in Mobutu's Zaire.26 According to OSS public relations
materials, "these persons have a not unimportant experience in the safety of
this country."26 Providing mine security, body-guard and protection
services, OSS operates in Burundi, Ivory Coast, Rwanda, Dubai, South Africa,
Republic of Congo (Brazzavile) and Belgium, placing them in cahoots with all
sides warring and plundering eastern Congo today.27

Emaxon Finance International is a real gem, one of these octopuses of mining
tangled up with interlocking companies and subsidiaries based in specious
geographical offshore "tax havens" that work to shield from prosecution
people who are responsible for money laundering, weapons and drugs
operations, assassinations and other terrorism.

NIKANOR is registered as an Isle of Man (UK) company, an offshore tax haven
that helps to conceal criminal activities and maximize profits. NIKANOR
directors include Dan Kurtzer, former U.S. ambassador to Israel (2001-2005)
and Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Intelligence and
Research under Madeleine Albright. NIKANOR partners include Mende and Moshe
Gertner [sic], Israeli property tycoons with vast holdings in London who
control 22 percent of NIKANOR. Another partner is Israeli-born Nir Livnat,
managing director of Johannesburg-based Ascot Diamonds, a member of the
Steinmetz Group of Diamond Companies, and a principal involved in numerous
U.S.-based businesses from Miami to New York.