By Stephen Bell
Special to DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
PERTH (Dow Jones)—Australia's Cape Lambert Iron Ore Ltd.
(CFE.AU) says a Chinese group is interested in the company's Sierra
Leone iron ore project.
China Metallurgical Group Corp., or MCC, is "looking at our
Sierra Leone asset as we speak," said Tony Sage, executive chairman
of Cape Lambert.
Perth-based Cape Lambert owns 35% of the direct-ship Marampa
iron ore venture, in Sierra Leone, West Africa, where drilling
recently started on the Gafal West prospect.
MCC is "very close" to Cape Lambert, after the company last year
sold its Western Australian namesake magnetite iron project to the
Chinese company for A$400 million, Sage told Dow Jones Newswires in
an interview Thursday evening.
Cape Lambert also owns a coal project roughly 10 kilometers from
the coast in Sierra Leone, he said.
MCC wasn't immediately available for comment.
Cape Lambert has been busy in the past few months preparing the
Lady Annie copper mine for sale to Q Copper, which is seeking to
raise up to A$214 million through an initial public offering.
But Sage said that his focus from January will be using cash
from the IPO to develop some of the company's offshore assets,
including Sierra Leone iron ore and coal.
Others include a uranium project in Namibia.
Cape Lambert will receive around A$169 million in cash and
shares from the sale of Lady Annie to Q Copper.
It will retain up to 10% of the new company when it lists in
December.
After completion of the IPO, and a proposed capital return to
shareholders, Cape Lambert will have roughly A$175 million in cash,
Sage said.
"The cash will be used to develop the projects that we have
already purchased over the last six to eight months," he said.
In "informal" talks with MCC, the Chinese company also mentioned
that it is "very interested" in BHP Billiton's (BHP) Ravensthorpe
nickel asset, Sage said.
"They are very well cashed up, so they would be one of the
companies, as long as the price isn't too inflated, that might have
a go at it (Ravensthorpe)," he said.
Final bids for the failed BHP mine are due Nov. 25, people
familiar with the situation told Dow Jones Newswires last week.
-By Stephen Bell, contributing to Dow Jones Newswires;
61-8-9244-4243; sgbell@bigpond.com