Australasian, Shougang still in talks

Iron ore hopeful Australasian Resources says it is still in negotiations with its partner Shougang over the Susan Palmer project agreement.

Australasian added that its shares will continue to be in a trading halt until an announcement is released on or by July 17.

Shares in Australasian Resources have been in a halt since July 3, a few days after an extended deadline for financing talks with Shougang expired.

The talks centre on the Balmoral South project which contains the 1 billion tonne Susan Palmer iron ore deposit.

Shougang had exclusivity with Australasian over the project and had been given a March 31 deadline to come with a formal finance offer.

The Chinese entity missed that deadline and Australasian said it will widen its scope of financiers for the development for $2.7 billion project.

Another deal to lapse was a potential merger between Australasian and Clive Palmer's Resources Development International (RDI).

One of the merger conditions was that RDI list on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange by March 31.

Australasian had bought the Balmoral South project from Mr Palmer's company Mineralogy.