By: Esmarie Swanepoel
4th July 2012
PERTH (miningweekly.com) - ASX-listed Flinders on Wednesday said that it would immediately move forward with the development of its Pilbara iron-ore project, in Western Australia, after a proposed takeover by Russia’s Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) fell through.
Under the scheme implementation agreement with MMK, Flinders had been restricted in dealing with third parties to develop the Pilbara project, but with the A$554-million takeover now void, the company said it would resume talks with potential partners.
The scope of these discussions would include infrastructure access, project financing, ore marketing and offtake agreements and joint venture or corporate proposals.
A full data room has also been made available to interested groups to conduct due diligence as required.
“Although its is disappointing that MMK was not able to take steps to complete implementation of the scheme due to the injunction issued by the Russian court, Flinders continues to be in a strong position to capitalise on what we believe is the most strategically located, independently held iron-ore resource position in the Pilbara,” said MD Gary Sutherland.
“We expect that there will be strong interest and multiple options available to Flinders to deliver strong value accretive outcomes able to underpin the Pilbara iron-ore project development path, and we will move forward quickly in crystallizing that interest into binding proposals.”
Flinders is the sole owner of the Pilbara iron-ore project, where a resource of some one-billion tons has been targeted. An exploration target of between 110-million and 160-million tons has been identified in addition to the 917-million tons of mineral resource already defined at the project.
Edited by: Mariaan Webb
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