Battle Between Aztec Resources And Mt Gibson Iron

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Chinese Enter The Battle Between Aztec Resources And Mt Gibson Iron

 

(From minesite, By "Our Man In Oz")

 

Chinese takeaway has a whole new meaning in Australia’s iron ore industry. Not only is it the customer, not the cook, who is the Chinese player in the Australian game, but the purchase order from Shanghai is for the entire shop, not just a serving of noodles. And, if you think that’s complicated wait until you get to the details of what’s afoot in Oz where there’s full-blooded mayhem among the small fry of the iron ore patch, and trying to figure out who’s buying what is almost down to guesswork. In a way, this description is a cop out, but only just. The truth about the small iron ore stocks, especially Aztec Resources and Mt Gibson Iron, is that none of the locals really knows who owns what, when the game will end, or who’s on top.

 

Aztec Resources ... weekly-update : daily-6mos

 

Mt Gibson Iron ... weekly-update : daily-6mos

 

This complicated muddle is best illustrated by the Aztec situation. Four months ago this company, which is re-developing the old BHP Billiton iron ore mine on Koolan Island, received an uninvited three-for-one share swap takeover from a local rival, Mt Gibson Iron. The plan, according to Mt Gibson, was to create a mid-tier player out of two smaller miners. London-based Cambrian Mining said it quite liked the idea and accepted the Mt Gibson offer for the 30 per cent it owned in Aztec, and earlier today lodged a notice saying at now owned 19.93 per cent of Mt Gibson. Other investors have been slow to follow Cambrian out of Aztec though a steady trickle has lifted Mt Gibson to almost 40 per cent of its target.

 

Cambrian Mining (CBM.L) ... weekly-update : daily-6mos

 

In normal circumstance a 40 per cent stake should constitute effective control, and perhaps it will. Aztec, despite making good progress with its Koolan Island project, has fouled its own nest somewhat by botching a royalty deal on the island and forced to cough up an issue of 78 million shares to buy out a strange mob from Sydney called Australian Royalties Corporation, about which nobody knows anything. ARC might even have stayed in the background, except it whacked a caveat on the Koolan Island project and demanded prompt settlement, giving Mt Gibson the ammunition to claim all Aztec shareholders had been misled.

 

Shanghai Merchants (HK:1104) ... weekly-update : daily-6mos

 

If your head hurts at this point of the saga it might be best to walk away now because it just gets worse thanks to the intervention of even more mystery people – the chaps from China. In the latest twist, a Chinese company called Shanghai Merchants has snapped up a 10.6 per cent stake in Mt Gibson, and a 6.6 per cent stake in Aztec. Shanghai Merchants, with a foot in both camps, is backed by one of China’s biggest steel mills Shougang. It bought the Aztec shares on market, and the stake in Mt Gibson from an even more famous billionaire Chinaman, Lee Ming Tee, a prominent player in the Australian corporate world in the 1980s when he had a number of joint ventures with Malcolm Burne, chairman of AIM listed Golden Prospect.

 

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