Algy Cluff sets his sights on listing self-named coal mining firm
ALGY Cluff, the 71-year old mining tycoon who once said that his venture Cluff Gold would be “the last throw of the dice” is returning to the market with plans to list a new mining company on the London Stock Exchange next year.
Cluff Africa Associates, the fifth in a line of companies to bear his name, was set up last year for exploring copper and coal deposits in African and has raised £2.5m so far through two fundraisings.
Cluff’s attachment to Africa stems back to his time serving as a Grenadier Guard in the 1960s, when he told one paper the mysterious place “got under his skin.”
After spending three decades in oil and gas exploration, he embarked on his first mining venture in Africa with Cluff Resources in the 1980s, which made one of the largest postwar gold finds in 1994 before being taken over a year later for £80m by Ashanti, much to Cluff’s dismay.
This was followed by Cluff Mining – now Ridge Mining – in 2000, which specialises in platinum extraction and Cluff Gold, which listed on the Alternative Investment Market in 2005 and received a takeover bid last year.
Cluff, who once described himself as a “romantic Tory”, owned the Spectator magazine for four years in the 1980s and was chairman for more than 20 years.