Deloitte: WA Index reveals extraordinary growth for WA mining

By Rob Starr, Content Manager, Big4.com

Deloitte recently released a special edition of the Deloitte WA Index at the opening of the Investing in African Mining Indaba conference in Cape Town, South Africa, highlighting the performance of WA listed mining companies with significant operations in Africa over the past 12 months and five years.

Deloitte Lead Audit Partner and Mining Leader – Western Australia, Tim Richards said while this may seem to indicate operational failure, poor equity performance or withdrawals from the region, the reality is the reverse.

“The success of Australian companies in Africa has seen a large number of mid-tier miners targeted by global resource companies as a means of accessing valuable assets and management expertise in Africa. The growth over the five year period of WA mining companies in Africa has actually been extraordinary,” Mr Richards said.

Precious metal prices continue to impress, with the current price of gold bullion (US$1,662/oz) up 5.6%   from 12 months ago and up 98.8% from five years ago. Consequently, it is not surprising to see that companies operating in this sector dominated the top percentage movers. Gold prices are expected to stay high this year due to ongoing constraints in global mine supply, with the average price for 2013 forecast to be above US$1,850/oz – a new record on a full-year basis.

The Deloitte Australia-Africa Services Group Leader Jacques van Rhyn said despite the volatile and challenging conditions over the past 12 months, in the 2012 financial year, the Australian Securities Exchange reported nine new listings with principal projects in Africa, raising a total of AU$135m. This is in addition to a further AU$1.3bn raised through follow-on raisings by more than 50 companies for over 60 projects.