Cape Lambert Iron Ore has officially launched its plans to spin out the Lady Annie copper mine into new company Q Copper, which will soon open its $214 million initial public offer.
Cape Lambert Iron Ore has officially launched its plans to spin out the Lady Annie copper mine into new company Q Copper, which will soon open its $214 million initial public offer.
Cape Lambert Iron Ore has officially launched its plans to spin out the Lady Annie copper mine into new company Q Copper, which will soon open its $214 million initial public offer.
Cape Lambert had flagged plans to divest the Lady Annie mine in Queensland after it acquired it from collapsed company CopperCo.
Today, Cape Lambert said Q Copper's prospectus has been lodged with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission with the IPO to open on November 23.
Q Copper aims to raise $214 million through the issue of shares priced at $1 each. A minimum subscription of $203 million has been set.
Patersons Securities is the lead manager to the offer. Q Copper expects to list on the Australian Securities Exchange on December 21.
The bulk of the funds - $158 million is full subscription is achieved - will go to Cape Lambert as payment for Lady Annie and the company will also take a 5-10 per cent interest in Q Copper, depending on IPO demand.
Cape Lambert has proposed to return funds from the sale of Lady Annie to shareholders.
"Once the IPO has been completed and funds received, Cape Lambert proposes to make a return to shareholders of approximately $0.10 per share, details of which will be provided to the market in due course," Cape Lambert Tony Sage said.
"This capital return follows the $100 million paid to shareholders last year from the sale of our namesake iron ore asset in Western Australia."
Q Copper is aiming to restart operations at Lady Annie by July next year before ramping up to an annual target copper production rate of 20,000 tonnes for the remainder of 2010.
The company will then ramp up operations to 25,000t of copper a year during 2011. The mine life is planned to be extended to seven years.
Lady Annie was placed on care and maintenance in February this year, primarily due to heavy rains.
In its prospectus, Q Copper has estimated it will cost $6.3 million to restart Lady Annie.
On the board is non-executive chairman John Moore, chief executive and managing director Peter Mulroney and non-executive directors Giuseppe Ariti and Marcello Cardaci.