Issue link: http://resourceworld.uberflip.com/i/661612
12 www.resourceworld.com A P R I L / M A Y 2 0 1 6 S ince he first entered the mining busi- ness in the late 1970s, Lukas Lundin has rarely allowed political risk concerns to stand in the way of a good opportunity. In the last 35 years, that approach has taken Lundin Group companies into the Democratic Republic of Congo and regions of the world where others have been reluc- tant to venture. So when Resource World called to ask for an interview, it was no surprise to find him in Ecuador, a Latin American country that has rattled the nerves of investors in recent years amid reports of government interference in min- ing and the imposition of a 70% windfall revenue tax on oil and gas companies operating there. Lundin was there to wrap up nego- tiations that may set the stage for development of the Fruta del Norte Project, a rich Ecuadorian gold discov- ery that Lundin group company, Fortress Minerals, acquired last year from Kinross Gold for $240 million. The goal was to make Fruta del Norte the cornerstone asset of Fortress which changed its name to Lundin Gold Corp. [LUG-TSX, NASDAQ Stockholm]. When Lundin phoned me from his hotel room in Quito (the capital city of Ecuador), he was preparing to fly home to Geneva before taking a brief vacation in Madagascar. He then planned to fly to Kenya to check on a big discovery that has sparked interest in Lundin company Africa Oil Corp. [AOI-TSX; NASDAQ Stockholm], before heading back to Toronto to attend company board meetings. Like almost everyone in the mining sec- tor, Lundin says he has been impacted by slumping commodity prices, which have sent stock price valuations tumbling, mak- ing it almost impossible for large sectors of the mining industry to raise money for project development. That has prompted many of the compa- nies in his group to cut back on exploration and slash spending. "It's pretty tough for most people right now," he said. Lundin said he has been particularly surprised by the slump in the price of oil. "Prices are so low that there is not much going on and people are being very careful." But as his travel schedule suggests, tough times spell opportunity for execu- tives like Lukas and his brother Ian, who have been described by one observer as "that rare breed who understand both the exploration and production sides of the resource business." "Very few groups have that level of power, ability and financial resources," Lukas Lundin Global Mining Entrepreneur by Peter Kennedy