Mount Gibson Iron Ltd and its subsidiary Mount Gibson Mining Ltd have completed the sale of their combined 73 per cent interest in Asia Iron Holdings Ltd to minority shareholder Sinom Investments Ltd.
Mount Gibson Iron Ltd and its subsidiary Mount Gibson Mining Ltd have completed the sale of their combined 73 per cent interest in Asia Iron Holdings Ltd to minority shareholder Sinom Investments Ltd.
The binding agreement with Sinom for the sale of the interest is for $52.5 million, for Asia Iron, which holds the Extension Hill Magnetite project in the Mid-West region of Western Australia.
The proceeds of sale will be held in escrow until environmental approval for the project is granted by the WA government. A decision on environmental approval is anticipated by the end of 2006. If environmental approval is not obtained by 30 November 2007, Sinom may terminate the agreement and the sale shares will be returned.
Mt Gibson also announced today that it would oppose an application by takeover target Aztec Resources Ltd to the Takeovers Panel seeking an interim order that would restrain MGI from dispatching its bidder's statement to Aztec shareholders pending resolution of Aztec's application.
The full announcement is pasted below
Mount Gibson Iron Limited is pleased to advise that it achieved record monthly ore mined from its Tallering Peak operations of 340,958 tonnes during the month of July. The result shows that MGI is meeting its targets to achieve an expected production rate of 3 Mtpa at its Tallering Peak mine during the first half of 2006/07. The increased ore mined as scheduled follows the waste development undertaken during the first 6 months of the year.
MGI advises that the it has completed the sale of its and Mount Gibson Mining Limited's combined 73% interest in Asia Iron Holdings Limited to Sinom Investments Limited. As noted in MGI's ASX announcement on 7 June 2006, the proceeds of sale will be held in escrow until environmental approval for the Extension Hill Magnetite Project is granted by the WA government. A decision on environmental approval is anticipated by the end of 2006. If environmental approval is not obtained by 30 November 2007, Sinom may terminate the agreement and the sale shares will be returned.
MGI also advises that it has received notification that Aztec Resources Limited has filed an application with the Takeovers Panel in relation to MGI's takeover bid for Aztec. The application is seeking, among other things, an interim order from the Takeovers Panel
restraining MGI from dispatching the Bidder's Statement to Aztec shareholders pending resolution of Aztec's application. MGI intends to oppose the application.