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Mining developer Tony Sage’s plan to sell the majority of a Sierra Leone iron ore venture via a 430 million Australian dollar (US$435 million) initial public offering in London looks to be on shaky ground because of weak equity markets.
The good news for Sage’s Cape Lambert Resources is the strong interest shown by Chinese and other companies in the Marampa project, which could result in an outright or partial sale of the asset.
“We’ve had six (groups) through the data room for Marampa, including Chinese interests,” said Mr. Sage, Executive Chairman of Perth-based Cape Lambert, which specializes in buying early stage mineral assets and then on-selling them after adding value.
“There are also non-Chinese companies in the data room and they are already in West Africa.”
Mr. Sage declined to identify the parties due to confidentiality agreements.
But Perth stockbroker Patersons Securities says global miners Vale of Brazil and U.K.-based Xstrata are two of the parties undertaking due diligence on the undeveloped iron ore asset.
“We are confident that Vale and Xstrata have been in the Marampa data room but, given they are both active in West Africa, they are probably looking at any assets that come up,” said Alex Passmore, head of research at Patersons.
http://blogs.wsj.com/dealjournalaustralia/2011/12/09/cape-lambert-ramps-up-marampa-interest/?mod=google_news_blog
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