KITCO NEWS – Activist investors overhauled many mining boards during recent bear markets, including HudBay Minerals Inc. in 2009. Thanks to billionaire Carl Icahn, they may be back in the spotlight in the mining sector. This week, two board members from Icahn’s investment firm were announced to have been appointed by Freeport-McMoRan Inc (NYSE:FCX). ‘The value of these [mining] stocks has been absolutely destroyed, so a lot of these activists are saying wait a minute, it makes sense to break up these companies, and take out excesses,’ said Ken Hoffman, Global Head of Metals & Mining Research at Bloomberg Intelligence. ‘It is the beginning of making some sanity,’ he said in an interview with Kitco News. Shares in commodities group Glencore rose strongly Friday after the company said it is slashing its zinc production by a third and cutting jobs in response to a sharp fall in the price of the metal. ‘You are starting to see more and more companies act responsibly, and they are responding by cutting and understanding that China has major issues. What these activists will do is go to the management that was saying, ‘China will be fine,’ year after year, and say, ‘you need to act responsibly.’
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