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Aussie resource stocks slam market into reverse

Thu, 08 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +1100

Finally local shares caught the sell-off fever, following large gains since November. Overnight falls on Wall Street and falling commodity prices left little direction for the market to go – but down.

Telstra stays with profit guidance

Thu, 08 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +1100

Telstra Corporation (ASX:TLS) announced its financial guidance remains the same despite the telecommunication company's exclusion from the National Broadband Network (NBN).Telstra chief executive Sol Trujillo, said, "I want to confirm that there is no change to our financial guidance as a result of Telstra's exclusion from the NBN RFP (request for proposals) process," he said in a conference in the US today. "For FY09 (the 2009 full year) we expect continued robust growth at the top line, coupled with further EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) margin expansion," Mr Trujillo said on Thursday."We are on track for our $6-7 billion FCF (free cash flow) target in FY10 (the 2010 full year)."Telstra shares closed 7 cents lower at $3.69.

Tianshan Goldfields has significant gold hits at Gold Mountain

Thu, 08 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +1100

Tianshan Goldfields has reported encouraging drill intercepts at depth at its Gold Mountain Project in northwest China. Significant hits included 72 metres at 1.75g/t gold. The results indicate significant potential for extensions to Tianshan's existing resource base at Gold Mountain.

Fortescue Metals ships 15 Millionth Tonne

Thu, 08 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +1100

Fortescue Metals Group (ASX:FMG) has shipped its 15 millionth tonne of iron ore through the Herb Elliott Port in Port Hedland, marking another milestone for the company.Fortescue Executive Director Operations Graeme Rowley said, “the mine, rail and port operations teams worked hard throughout 2008 to achieve the 15 million tonne (mt) milestone as the company continues to ramp-up its operations.” “In December we shipped 2.6mt which is the highest monthly rate achieved to date. The fourth quarter result was 6.3mt shipped, noting that this period included a 10 day port shut down to commission the second wharf. In addition, the tonnes mined at Cloudbreak during 2008 totalled 19.5mt, just 1% shy of our target.”Fortescue exported more than 14.8mt of high quality iron ore in 2008, after loading its First Ore On Ship on May 15, 2008. Fortescue also shipped 60,000 tonnes for Atlas Iron in December, which marked the historic first shipment of iron ore by a third party from a Pilbara port. “We are continuing to finetune our operations and will increase mine, rail and port tonnage through 2009. Commissioning of the company’s desand plant at the Cloudbreak mine site is proceeding as planned, which will ensure Fortescue’s ore specification in quality and quantity is maintained,” Mr Rowley said.Fortescue Metals was trading at $2.08

AWE's Tui oil production hits 20 million barrels

Thu, 08 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +1100

AWE currently has five main producing assets: Tui oil fields - offshore Taranaki basin, New Zealand (AWE 42.5% operator); BassGas project - offshore Bass Strait, Tasmania (AWE 42.5%); Cliff Head oil field - offshore Perth basin, Western Australia (AWE 57.5%); Casino gas field - offshore Otway basin, Victoria (AWE 25%) and Onshore Perth Basin WA (AWE 33-100%).

Macquarie Group sells margin lending business to Bendigo & Adelaide Bank

Thu, 08 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +1100

Macquarie Group (ASX:MQG) has announced that its banking subsidiary, Macquarie Bank Limited, has signed an agreement to sell the bulk of its margin lending portfolio worth $1.5 billion to Leveraged Equities, a wholly owned subsidiary of Bendigo and Adelaide Bank (ASX:BEN). The portfolio is the fourth largest margin lending books in Australia.For BEN, the acquisition is EPS accretive in year one, increasing customers form 17,000 to 30,000.Leveraged Equities has agreed to acquire the $1.5 billion loan portfolio for a premium of $52 million.

Equinox Minerals starts copper concentrate deliveries from Lumwana

Thu, 08 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +1100

Equinox Minerals has commenced concentrate deliveries from the Lumwana Copper mine to offtakers on December 13, 2008. Long term contract deliveries will commence later this month to Chambishi Copper Smelter, with interim deliveries of concentrate going to international metal traders’ facilities under short term contracts.

Resource shares keep Australian market at 2 month high

Wed, 07 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +1100

Local shares benefitted from higher commodity prices, particularly copper and nickel as resources companies, large and small registered large trading volumes

Murchison Metal's Jack Hills iron continues to ship - despite economic conditions

Wed, 07 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +1100

Murchison Metals has announced its Jack Hill's iron ore shipments have continued despite the economic downturn. Market evidence pointed toward a reduction in Chinese ore stockpiles. The quality of the Jack Hills ore and relationship with Mitsubishi has provided a strong platform for growth in 2009.

Mining stocks outperform Top 50 Aussie stocks

Wed, 07 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +1100

As part of the mining and metals sector, BHP Billiton and its brethren have handily out-performed the top 50 stocks over the past two months. Turning on its head the notion that top 50 investing is the only way to invest during market downturns. However, timing is everything.

Finders Resources Names Robert Thomson Executive Director

Wed, 07 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +1100

Finders Resources Ltd said it appointed Robert Peter Thomson as an executive director with immediate effect. He was previously the company's general manager, development and still has the prime responsibility for successful completion of feasibility studies and subsequent development of the Company's Wetar copper project.

Australian shares buoyed by rally in small miners

Tue, 06 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +1100

The Australian sharemarket opened higher and kept moving higher, led by large moves in smaller resource stocks as well as bank stocks.

Venture Mineral's Mount Lindsay iron resource increases 50%

Tue, 06 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +1100

Venture Mineral's 50 per cent increase in iron resource at Mount Lindsay to 30mt follows the announcement of a second high grade Tin‐Tungsten shoot at the company's flagship Mount Lindsay Project in Tasmania.

Black Range Minerals buys Jonesville Coal Project in Alaska

Tue, 06 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +1100

Black Range Minerals (ASX:BLR) has announced the acquisition of a 100% interest in the advanced Jonesville Coal Project in Alaska, USA. The project hosts JORC measured, indicated and inferred resources of 130Mt of high quality (low sulphur) thermal coal. A revised resource/reserve statement will be issued by the company. The company has also an option to reprocess up to 500,000 tonnes of clean coal tailings from the Even Jones Coal Mine. If considered viable, this could generate cash flow in the short term.Purchase consideration for the project is: the issue of 15 million fully paid Black Range Mineral shares, the payment of $US2 million and a two per cent gross value royalty on all project production to the vendors.Historic production from Jonesville Coal Project is around 5.5Mt of high quality thermal coal between 1920 and 1968 from open pit and underground mining. Existing infrastructure is in place 100 kilometres northeast of Anchorage and readily accessible by road, with sealed highway within 2 kilometres of project. The project is 20 kilometres from existing railroad, with two ports nearby, both are fully equipped with coal loading facilities. The project is close shipping distance to major markets in China, Taiwan, South Korea and Japan. The company has secured the Jonesville coal assets as it believes the acquistion is a "low risk, low cost" acquisition, with with near term development and cash flow potential. Cash on hand for the company is approximately $10 million.Black Range Minerals was trading at 5.5 cents.

Northern Iron scores offtake agreement with Tata Steel - shares rise again

Tue, 06 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +1100

Northern Iron (ASX:NFE) has struck an offtake agreement with Corus, a subsidiary of Tata Steel Group to sell six million tonnes of iron concentrate from the company's Sydvaranger Iron Project in Norway, with an option to sell an additional 2.25 million tonnes. Tata Steel is the world's sixth largest steel producer. The company's total project inventory in Norway is 206 million tonnes at 32 per cent iron.The offtake agreement with Corus is for an initial term of 5 years from 1 July 2009 with contracted sales of 6Mt of concentrate representing approximately 45% of the planned base case production over the contract term.Separately, Northern Mining has entered into an Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with a third party to sell the remainder of the planned base case production. The compay aims to enter long term Freight on Board (FOB) sales agreements directly with pellet producers in Europe and the Middle East. The company's strategy is to leverage low levels off deleterious elements (including phosporus and silica) to move production to a lower silica product suitable for Direct Reduction pellet production. Significantly, the Sydvaranger mine has historically produced a range of products with silica levels of 0.5% using existing equipment on site.Northern Mining has indicated it is on schedule for commissioning of Sydvaranger in June 2009 with commercial production in July 2009. The company had cash on hand at Novemember 2008 (end) of $89.4 million.Northern Mining was last trading at $1.02 with over one million shares traded.

Babcock & Brown share price up on sale rumours

Tue, 06 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +1100

Babcock & Brown's (ASX:BNB) shares have spiked on the ASX today by 14.5 cents, or 58% to 39.5 cents. Market rumours are that Babcock's bankers may allow the company time to sell off assets to reduce debt levels. Trading volumes were extremely heavy at 35 million shares at lunch. However, there has been no announcement by the company on the rumours.

Mirabela Nickel aims for financing for Santa Rita by February

Tue, 06 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +1100

Mirabela Nickel (ASX/TSX:MBN) said in a statement it was aiming for senior debt financing commitments for its wholly owned Santa Rita nickel project in Brazil by end of January 2009. Mirabela indicated it was not aware of any unannounced information to explain the recent increase in the company's share price. However, it noted the nickel price had increased by 15.8% from $US11,700 per tonne to $US13,500 per tonne in January 2009.The company announced a maiden Santa Rita underground inferred resource in December 2008 of 55 million tonnes at 0.82% Ni and 0.24% Cu. Mirabela Nickel Ltd owns 100% of the world class Santa Rita nickel sulphide project with a JORC Indicated open‐cut resource of 130mt grading 0.60% Ni for 780,000t of contained Ni, Santa Rita is the largest nickel sulphide discovery world‐wide in the last 12 years. Construction of a 6.4 mtpa nickel sulphide concentrator commenced in November 2007. Construction is now about 65% complete and the project remains on track to commence production mid 2009.Mirabela Nickel was trading at $1.25.

Aussie shares pulled back by banks

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +1100

The Australian sharemarket opened markedly higher, led by resource heavyweights and small miners, but banking issues came under severe selling pressure.

Webjet books large sales growth - defies gloom

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +1100

Webjet (ASX:WEB) has announced that preliminary figures for the half year to 31 December 2008 indicate a total transaction value of approximately $180 million compared with approximately $158 million for the same period last year, an increase of 14%.During the same period despite a generally reported downturn in Australian air travel volumes, total transaction numbers increased by approximately 19% on the same period last year which reflects the substantial reduction in air fare ticket prices as airlines move to reduce fuel surcharges and provide the market with aggressively priced bargains.Webjet Managing Director, David Clarke, said “despite the general gloom we expect that profit for the period will show a similar level of increase on last year and early holiday period January bookings have continued strongly driven in part by our early commencement of our media marketing campaign for 2009 on the National 7 (ASX:SEV) network.The company said, although these early figures are extremely encouraging and suggest an increase in market share for Webjet it is too early at this juncture to form clear views on booking trends for 2009.Webjet shares were trading up 4.7%, to $1.01.

Po Valley snares gas offtake and shares jump 22%

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +1100

Po Valley Energy has announced a keenly awaited gas offtake agreement for part of planned production from PVE's northern Italian gas field assets.

Anglo Pacific moves onto Berkeley Resources register

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +1100

Berkeley Resources has a new major shareholder as Anglo Pacific Group Plc has announced the acquisition of shares in Berkeley in November and December 2008.

Uranium - big gains ahead for big yellow

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +1100

Uranium has defied the gloom pervading commodity prices, as a combination of: new nuclear reactors, emphasis by governments on reducing greenhouse emissions and lack of new mine supply propel uranium stocks to the forefront of investor opportunities.

Grange Resources completes merger with ABM

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +1100

Grange Resources (ASX:GRR) has advised that the requisite Chinese Government approvals have now been received for the merger with Australian Bulk Minerals (“ABM”). The merger will see Grange become one of Australia’s leading producers and exporters of high value magnetite products. At completion, the ABM selling shareholders were issued with new shares in Grange as follows: Shagang International Holdings 47.2%, RGL Holdings Co. Ltd 13.8%, Pacific International 8.3% and Stemcor Pellets 7.7%.Grange Resources last traded at 35 cents.

Itochu invests $15m in Western Desert Resource's Roper Iron Ore project

Tue, 23 Dec 2008 00:00:00 +1100

Western Desert Resources has finalised the agreement for ITOCHU to invest up to $A15 million over the next six years to earn a maximum 51 per cent equity in the Roper Bar Iron Ore Project. This is in addition to the initial $A2 million acquistion.

Finders Resources anticipates first copper production in January

Mon, 22 Dec 2008 00:00:00 +1100

Finders Resources, the precious and base metals exploration and development company operating in Indonesia, delivered good news to investors just in time for the holidays.