Comment from Davos: Severstal, Rusal, Rio Tinto and Anglo-American

Luminaries from the world’s mining industry have been speaking to reporters at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, giving their views on mining in the global economy.

Viktor Vikselberg, owner of Russia-based gold producer OAO Zoloto Kamchatki (ZK), told reporters that the company was not prepared to list this year, but would make an initial public offering in the second half of 2013.

The chief executive officer of OAO Severstal, Alexei Mordashov, said that he expected the coming year to be ‘more or less typical’ in terms of steel and iron ore prices. Severstal recently spun off its gold division, Nord Gold NV.

Speaking to Bloomberg Television, Mr Mordashov said he did not expect major growth in gold prices, which he believed would fluctuate around present levels up to US$1,800/oz over the year.

Oleg Deripaska, owner of aluminium producer Rusal, said that the company may reduce output by up to 6% over the coming 18 month. Also speaking to Bloomberg, Mr Deripaska said that Rusal would seek to take old capacity offline, noting a reduction in demand as the European debt crisis affects construction.

In an interview with CNBC, Rio Tinto CEO Tom Albanese said he expects no hard landing from a slowdown in the Chinese economy, arguing that growth in domestic usage and a greatly enlarged economic base represents a net positive for iron ore. Mr Albanese said that establishing new mines has become increasingly difficult with changing political climates, and that limitations of supply were likely to keep copper prices high.

Cynthia Carroll, CEO of Anglo American plc, said that the Metals and Mining group at Davos remained “bullish” in its forecasts. In an interview with Bloomberg following the group’s meeting, she said that prices for copper, platinum metallurgical coal and iron ore were likely to be “softer” over the first half of this year, but that longer terms prospects for all commodities remained “very robust”. Mrs Carroll pointed to Anglo’s Grosvenor metallurgical coal project in Queensland as one of the company’s most promising developments for the coming year.

Mrs Carroll also discussed the ongoing dispute between Anglo-American and Chile’s Codelco, regarding a stake in Anglo’s South American copper subsidiary. She affirmed Anglo’s position that Codelco had attempted to prematurely exercise its option, but struck a conciliatory note, saying that she had been meeting with her counterpart at Codelco. “We’re open to finding a solution,” she said, “We believe in the judicial system in Chile”.