MELBOURNE/SYDNEY (Reuters) - Gold and copper miner Ivanhoe Australia Ltd has received interestfrom up to eight bidders for stakes in its projects and may in theprocess end up with a new controlling stakeholder, said ChiefExecutive Peter Reeve. Ivanhoe Australia, with a market value of A$553 million ($551.92million), appointed UBS AG in January to advise it stake sales infour projects, aiming to complete a deal by mid-year. The proceedsare key for Ivanhoe Australia to develop its Osborne copper-goldmine, the Merlin molybdenum-rhenium project, the Mount Dore cathodecopper project and the Mount Elliott copper-gold project. Two sources with direct knowledge of the deal said second-roundbids were due later this month, with preliminary interest seen from Anglo American Plc , OZ Minerals Ltd, Vedanta Group and Indian conglomerate AdityaBirla Group for the copper and gold deposits. The sources declined to be identified as the talks areconfidential. Anglo American officials declined comment and officials at OZMinerals, Aditya Birla Group and Vedanta could not immediately bereached for comment. "There's continuing interest in the copper assets out of Asia.People are just very cautious about where they can get good, largecopper deposits from in the future," Reeve told Reuters. The sale process has been complicated as global miner Rio Tinto Ltd recently took over management control of Ivanhoe Australia'sparent Ivanhoe Mines Ltd. Rio Tinto is looking to pare Ivanhoe Mine's holdings to focus onthe Canadian miner's stake in the Oyu Tolgoi copper mine inMongolia, as its other holdings do not fit Rio's strategy of owninglarge, low-cost, long-life assets. Reeve said he still expected to seal a deal by mid-2012 and thatcould include the sale of Ivanhoe Mines' 59 percent stake inIvanhoe Australia. "It could move that way, if required," he said, referring toIvanhoe Mines' equity stake sale, but declined to comment on thelikelihood. "We're focusing on getting the business funded," he said. Reeve did not elaborate on the bidders beyond saying they werelargely Asian. In a research note earlier this month, Macquarie said IvanhoeAustralia needed more than A$250 million for the Merlin project andwith the company's cash balance now under A$100 million, lining upfunding was key. Concern over the stake sale and funding have weighed on IvanhoeAustralia's shares, which are down 50 percent since it launched thesearch for a strategic partner. "I'm actually very confident we will achieve something out of thisstrategic process," Reeve said. Thomson Reuters 2012 All rights reserved SUBSCRIBE to Mineweb.com's free daily newsletter now. We are high quality suppliers, our products such as Ferro Silicon Barium , China Calcium Silicon Barium for oversee buyer. To know more, please visits Ferro Silicon Barium.
Related Articles -
Ferro Silicon Barium, China Calcium Silicon Barium,
|