ARH relists today, this story from the Australia for the full story see LINK
Australasian's relisting a test for iron
Kevin Andrusiak
April 16, 2007
AFTER more than five months off the ASX boards, Clive Palmer's Australasian Resources will be a good litmus test of the market's appetite for iron ore stocks when it rejoins the share market today.
It comes back a markedly different company to what it was in December when it had a market capitalisation of $506 million.
Since then, it has signed agreements with China's fourth-biggest steel maker, Shougang, to finance the $US2.1 billion ($2.5 billion) Balmoral project through an interest-free loan and added 201 million tonnes into the probable ore reserve category.
Australasian is majority owned by Mr Palmer, who picked up much of the Balmoral ground in the iron ore-rich Pilbara region of Western Australia in the 1980s.
The company is one of a new breed of iron ore miners developing magnetite projects purely to feed Chinese demand. Others include Andrew Forrest's Fortescue Metals and Tony Sage's Cape Lambert.
Mr Palmer is estimated to hold between 60 billion and 100 billion tonnes of magnetite ore in his tenements, much of which could end up being vended into Australasian.
Last year, he sold off one block of land containing 1 billion tonnes to Citic in a deal worth $5 billion and vended key tenements, which form the basis of the Balmoral Project, into Australasian for a controlling stake in the company.
The project has State Agreement approval and its coastal proximity means it won't need to rely too much on infrastructure, which can lengthen the time to get a mine to the export stage.