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The slump in metal prices this year as demand falls amid a moribund global economy does not have global mining firms worried, with Fortescue Metals, Anglogold Ashanti and Rio Tinto all saying on Wednesday that the long-term prospects for commodities remain intact.
Prices for key commodities such as copper and iron ore have all retreated this year – copper prices, for instance, have fallen 14 percent since the start of the year.
“Financially, things are tough in the short term, (there’s) not a lot of liquidity and funding for new projects. But at the end of the day, the outlook on a long-term basis is still very, very good,” Mark Cutifani, CEO of Anglogold Ashanti , the world’s third-largest producer of gold, told CNBC Asia’s “Squawk Box” on Wednesday.
“The most important thing we have to remember is that the world is short of commodities and so for the mining industry, that’s good news for the long term,” he said.
The challenges facing the commodities industry, according to Cutifani, include getting access to “new ground,” or unexplored terrain, which is becoming increasingly difficult, and that means new sources of metals will be scarce.
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