Anglo's $11bn debt 'sustainable'

Anglo American believes its debt of $11bn is sustainable. It has sold a number of assets, issued a bond and raised debt towards reducing it and funding its projects, executives said at the group's annual general meeting.

Anglo CEO Cynthia Carroll sounded an upbeat note about the commodities market, saying prices appeared to have stabilised recently.

"Indeed, there are even signs of some improvement, most notably in the copper price that has increased by more than 50% from its low point reached in December," she said.

"Looking forward, we are confident that the medium- to long-term fundamentals are firmly in place for strong commodity demand growth," she said.

The massive fiscal packages to stimulate the economies of China and the United States among others as well as delays to other firms' greenfield mining projects fed into Anglo's view of the future commodity market.

Anglo has slowed expenditure on its development projects, but is continuing work on them so it will be ready to take advantage of an upturn in the commodity cycle.

The end of 2011 and 2012 is an important time for Anglo, with its three big projects - the iron ore and nickel projects in Brazil and its copper venture in Chile - all coming into production or reaching expanded output levels.

The diversified mining group's chairperson Mark Moody-Stuart, who said his replacement would be sought during the coming year, told investors that the controversial Pebble copper and gold project in Alaska will not go ahead if it damages the environment.

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