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Kevin Andrusiak | August 08, 2007
MACQUARIE Bank is believed to be putting the finishing touches to a $90 million float of Australian assets of Ivanhoe Mines.
Details on the deal are sketchy, but Ivanhoe indicated that something was in the wind by saying "it's a definite possibility" and "we are keeping all our options open". The Australian understands that the float will kick off on September 3.
Ivanhoe, which is chaired by billionaire Canadian mining magnate Robert Friedland, has a suite of assets near Cloncurry in outback Queensland. Copper, gold and uranium mineralisation have been encountered over a number of prospects at Ivanhoe's Cloncurry Project which includes the historic Selwyn Mining District, covering 1450sqkm and producing close to 1 million ounces of gold and 175,000 tonnes of copper in the past.
Ivanhoe has ramped up the drilling at the project to define a copper/gold resource at Swan prospect and is working to better understand the mineralisation at Amethyst Castle and Metal Ridge. No doubt the uranium mineralisation will attract its fair share of interest by investors, but uranium mining in Queensland is still banned and there is no hint of an idea when it might one day be allowed.
Bullish broker study puts copper explorer in several plays
A profitable offtake agreement, deals on other properties and being in the gunsights for a planned Robert Friedland base metals float are key aspects of a positive evaluation of copper-gold explorer Exco Resources.
Author: Ross Louthean
Posted: Thursday , 14 Feb 2008
PERTH -
The positive exploration results being produced by Perth-based Exco Resources Ltd (ASX: EXS) in the Mount Isa-Cloncurry belt of north west Queensland has attracted a speculation buy tag from a global stockbroking house - with the assessments made themselves being speculative.
RBC Capital Markets, a broking division of Royal Bank of Canada, said that if an offtake agreement is struck between Exco and Xstrata plc on having Exco's E1 Camp copper-gold deposit treated at the nearby Ernest Henry mill it could bolster Exco's shares by $A1/share ($US0.90).
RBC says that with the mature Ernest Henry open cut and Xstrata having to move into underground development the spare capacity of its mill could be as much as 3 million tonnes per annum.
The E1 Camp deposit, 8 kilometres from the mill, has a resource of about 200,000 tonnes of contained copper and 200,000 ounces of gold - based on 26 Mt @ 0.85% Cu and 0.25 grams/tonne gold).
"We believe that Xstrata will sign an ore offtake agreement with Exco by mid 2009, and we understand the two companies are already in discussions," RBC Capital said.
The broking house modelled first E1 Camp production by mid 2010 at a rate of 3 Mtpa for 7-8 years.
RBC said E1 Camp was only part of an impressive package of properties in the Eastern Mt Isa Inlier that are in and around existing copper mines and deposits. Exco's resources total 345,000t of contained copper and 347,000 oz gold as well as an emerging 3,500t of uranium.
"Through deep drilling, we believe there is a high chance that Exco could discover large iron oxide copper-gold (IOCG) deposits within its tenement package. The company has five drill rigs and a $A5 M ($US4.5 M) annual exploration budget.
RBC said Robert Friedland's Ivanhoe company's Australian company - under consideration for an Australian IPO -- could increase its Exco shareholding from 12% to 18% by mid-2008 through exercising options.
"In our opinion, this is not only a blocking stake but a sizeable holding for a potential bid. We would not be surprised if Ivanhoe launch a takeover bid for Exco after the listing of its Queensland copper assets in 2008," RBC Capital said.
The recent expansion of Xstrata's Mt Isa copper smelter from 240,000t to 300,000t per annum of copper anode was designed to match increasing copper production from its Mt Isa and Ernest Henry copper mines.
"However, we believe that production at the Ernest Henry mine will reduce significantly from 2011 onwards as the operation switches from an open pit to underground operation.
"As a result, Xstrata faces the scenario of a large copper smelter running at 80% of design capacity. In fact, our analysis shows that there may be up to 60,000t of spare copper anode capacity as soon as 2010."
RBC Capital sees Exco as one of "the most impressive copper exploration tenement packages in all of Australia." It has over 4,700 km²
Exco acquired the majority of its land package from BHP Billiton in the late 1990s during the mining giant's sell down of its global exploration assets, and in 2006, it acquired further ground around the Cloncurry region from Haddington Resources.
The Company is pleased to confirm that its largest shareholder, Ivanhoe Australia Limited (a wholly owned subsidiary of NYSE and TSX listed Ivanhoe Mines Ltd) has exercised their full option entitlement (21,120,000) raising A$7,392,000. As a result Exco currently has cash of approximately A$16 million and Ivanhoe Australia’s interest in the Company has risen to 19.6%. Exco previously completed a capital raising in May 2007 with participants at the time receiving 4 options for every 5 shares issued. The options are exercisable at A$0.35 on or before 1 June 2008.
Ivanhoe will be keeping 80% of Ivanhoe Australia (IA), implying a market value for IA on listing at the issue price of $2 a share of $625 million. IA has an inter-company loan with Ivanhoe of $74.7 million, of which $30 million will be satisfied with proceeds from the float. The remainder is earmarked for a typically aggressive exploration and development program.
IA's focus is on the Cloncurry region in Queensland, where the hunt is on for iron oxide, copper-gold deposits such as Ernest Henry (Xstrata) in the same region, and Olympic Dam (BHP Billiton) and Prominent Hill (Oxiana) in South Australia.
IA's float is expected to lead to some aggressive wheeling and dealing by the group, using its scrip as currency. That should ring alarm bells for Xstrata, which needs to secure additional ore supplies for its Ernest Henry mill.
Exco Resources ”” owned 19.9% by IA ”” has a 31 million tonne resource containing 261,000 tonnes of copper and 241,000 ounces of gold just eight kilometres from the hungry Ernest Henry mill. Xstrata has been sniffing around Exco but now faces the prospect that IA could make a scrip bid that foils Xstrata's longer-term planning for the Ernest Henry mill. Alternatively, Xstrata could strike first. That was behind Exco's 3 ¢ gain to 38.5 ¢ yesterday.
Independently, Exco is studying the feasibility of a stand-alone development that would cost $187 million and produce 20,000 tonnes of copper in concentrates and 14,000 ounces of gold annually.
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