Golden West seeks review of adverse Panel decision

Golden West Resources Ltd has lodged an appeal against the Takeover Panel's decision to uphold Falak Holding's accidental sale of an 8 per cent Golden West stake into hostile suitor Fairstar Resources Ltd's scrip bid.

The panel said today it had received the review application from Golden West, but had not decided whether to conduct proceedings in relation to it.

The panel chose not comment on the merits of the application.

Yesterday, the panel considered that the market would have understood that the rejection intention of Falak was qualified by reference to the consideration not being varied and said it was not satisfied on the material before it that the market had been misled or there was any effect on other shareholders that warranted its intervention.

Dubai-based Falak has long been a supporter of Golden West's rejection of the takeover, but was surprised to learn last month that it had accidentally sold its Golden West shares to Fairstar. A sale, both Falak and Golden West, have tried to overturn since.

In a letter to Golden West shareholders today, Fairstar said it had so far received acceptances for approximately 34 million Golden West shares, representing approximately 33 per cent of the target.

Fairstar also took the opportunity to provide some guidance to Golden West shareholders, after some apparently raised concerns over their potential tax liability if they accepted Fairstar's sweetened seven-for-one offer.

Golden West, meanwhile, updated the market on its flagship Wiluna West iron ore project in WA's mid-west region.

Golden West said it had cash reserves of approximately $32.7 million which was sufficient to fully fund an aggressive exploration program as well as accelerated project development studies over the next 18 months.

The program will include an expanded 62,000m program of RC and diamond drilling to increase project resources in excess of 100Mt and a 1Mt trial mining and bulk sampling program.

It is expected that an updated resource estimate will be completed in the June quarter.