Companies: ZOX   

Andrew Woollett, boss of ZincOx Resources, a disastrous AIM float of 2001, is feeling an unfamiliar sensation. 'For the first time ever, I've got money in the bank which is not earmarked for any particular project', he reflects after receiving £4 million from local company Kazzinc for ZincOx's share of the Shaimerden zinc oxide deposit in Kazakhstan.

ZincOx, whose shares have been rallying briskly, put in £2 million to Shaimerden and could ultimately receive much more than the initial £4 million under a production-price formula. If zinc prices stay at today's $1.1256 a tonne, Kazzinc could ultimately pay another £10 million, starting in 2006.

Now focusing ZincOx on recycling, Woollett, who sold his previous company Reunion Mining advantageously, is bemused by the current fuss about bribes paid by mining companies in various countries. 'Kazakhstan had a terrible reputation in the early 1990s, but we never had a problem.

'In Africa the trouble was that companies took their chequebooks out before any request. I never did it. The only time I had an issue over bribery in Africa, it involved a Canadian stockbroker.'

ZincOx	AIM	£24.44m	31.50p	1.00p
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ZincOx boosts profits			28/04/2008
ZincOx wins recycling permit			29/02/2008
ZincOx raises £20 million			21/01/2008
ZincOx clinches £61 million finance deal			14/01/2008
Fund Manager Focus by Pauline McCallion			09/08/2007