UPDATE: Ivanhoe Throws Spanner In Xstrata-Exco Copper Mine Deal
20 Abril 2011 - 5:25AM
Dow Jones News
The largest shareholder in Exco Resources Ltd. (EXS.AU) is
withholding its blessing from the company's planned A$175 million
sale of two copper mining tenements to Xstrata PLC (XTA.LN),
potentially complicating the path toward the deal going ahead.
Ivanhoe Australia Ltd. (IVA.AU), majority owned by Canadian
mining baron Robert Friedland, said its chief executive Peter
Reeve, a non-executive director of Exco, recused himself from board
deliberations around the sale of the tenements close to Xstrata's
Ernest Henry mine in Australia's Queensland state.
"No assumptions should be made as to how Ivanhoe will vote its
22.8% shareholding in relation to Exco's proposed transaction,"
Ivanhoe said in a statement.
Xstrata announced the deal with Exco earlier Wednesday. It said
acquiring the E1 and Monakoff copper tenements in the northwestern
area of Queensland will "make an incremental contribution to Ernest
Henry's production profile from the second half of 2012".
The E1 and Monakoff deposits have a combined resource of 401,000
metric tons of copper and 384,000 ounces of gold, Xstrata said.
Ivanhoe added that it believes all after-tax proceeds from any
sale should be returned to Exco shareholders, a condition that
would limit Exco's ability to capitalize on the deal to develop its
own operations.
The deal is also likely to be complicated by the interest of
Sin-Tang Development Pte. Ltd., a Singapore-based iron ore trader
which clashed bitterly with Xstrata during the Anglo-Swiss miner's
A$514 million takeover of magnetite miner Sphere minerals last
year.
Eight months after the Sphere takeover was announced and with
Xstrata controlling 75% of the company, Sin-Tang is still the
largest holdout against the offer with a 15% stake. Sin-Tang also
holds 4.7% of Exco and had been involved in plans to fund the
development of the site.
Sin-Tang wasn't immediately available for comment.
Ivanhoe and Xstrata are rivals in the Mount Isa region, which
contains many of the world's largest base metals mines including
BHP Billiton Ltd.'s (BHP) Cannington lead-zinc mine, Xstrata's
Ernest Henry, and Xstrata's Mt Isa, one of the world's oldest
copper-zinc mines.
Exco's Cloncurry Copper Project lies just 8 kilometers east of
Ernest Henry.
Ivanhoe is keen to add regional projects to its portfolio to
make use of its Osborne processing facility and has cited the
Cloncurry project in management presentations.
-By David Fickling, Dow Jones Newswires; +61 2 8272 4689;
david.fickling@dowjones.com
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