New Jupiter Mines chairman Brian Gilbertson today said the company was likely to raise up to $100 million later this year to fund its share of the Tshipi manganese mine development in Africa.
New Jupiter Mines chairman Brian Gilbertson today said the company was likely to raise up to $100 million later this year to fund its share of the Tshipi manganese mine development in southern Africa.
A shareholders meeting would be held in the first half of August to approve Jupiter's purchase of a 49.9 per cent stake in Tshipi for $245 million in scrip from a consortium of major investors led by Mr Gilbertson's Pallinghurst group.
The Pallinghurst "co-investors", which include Korean steel giant Posco, private miner AMCI and bank Investec, will subsequently own 85 per cent of Jupiter shares.
Mr Gilbertson took on the chairman's role after the tragic death of Geoff Wedlock in the Sundance air crash last month.
Speaking to reporters today, Mr Gilbertson said he was confident Jupiter shareholders would approve the "transformational" transaction, which would see Jupiter become a major manganese producer by next year, when Tshipi is slated to come onstream.
Subsequent to approval of the deal, Mr Gilbertson said Jupiter would need to raise in the order of $70 million to $100 million to fund its share of the $US150 million mine development, and to pay for feasibility work on Jupiter's Yilgarn iron ore projects in Western Australia.
Mr Gilbertson said a rights issue was the most likely option to be pursued, probably in September or October, and he was confident that the Pallinghurst consortium would pick up any shortfall.
He noted that the Pallinghurst consortium had recently welcomed Dutch pension fund manager APG as a member, while Singapore's Temasek Holdings had invested in its Platmin platinum business and had been briefed on the Jupiter assets.
Jupiter is targeting a magnetite resource of 1.0 to 1.3 billion tonnes at its Mt Ida iron ore project in the Yilgarn, which Mr Gilbertson said represented an "unparalleled opportunity" to enter the iron ore sector given its proximity to existing rail infrastructure and the operating Esperance port.
Both the port and rail assets could be relatively cheaply expanded from the current 8 million tonnes per annum capacity, potentially up to 20 mtpa based on the number of potential users in the central Yilgarn such as Jupiter, he said.
Mr Gilbertson has previously outlined plans for Jupiter to work with other aspiring Yilgarn producers to consolidate their assets and work together to expand the existing infrastructure.
While Mr Wedlock had been critical to that process, Mr Gilbertson said the strategy remained a key objective of the company.
