RWE 08:48:00 2895 04/06/2007 (FE) Around the Traps ... with THE FERRET RWE News 8:48:020 4/06/2007
Sydney - Monday - June 4: (RWE Australian Business News) - *************************
METALLICA MINERALS (MLM) announced on Friday that it had executed a share subscription agreement with Yunnan Tin Australia Investment Holding Company Proprietary Limited. Investment ... Holding ... Company ... did they forget Group? No, hang on, the sentence went on to say Yunnan is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Yunnan Tin GROUP ... phew, that was close. Never mind the name, though, and just look at the share price. Metallica shot up 28c to $1 after the announcement before closing at 93c. It's a surprise the price didn't close higher. After all, the subscription agreement provides for Yunnan to subscribe for 5.38 million Metallica shares at $1.10 each, which was a huge 38c above the then last sale price. How often do you see shares taken up at such a handsome premium? Metallica claims that Yunnan Tin Group is the world's largest producer of tin, produces base metals and has subsidiaries producing nickel from the heap leaching of nickel laterite ores in Yunnan Province, China. Yunnan developed the world's first commercial-scale heap leach nickel operation in 2005. It is also a substantial shareholder in the recently listed YTC RESOURCES (YTC). YTC rose 5.5c to $1.215 on Friday, probably in sympathy.
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Climate change? Coal investors may well be asking "are we bovvered"? Another coal stock has made a stellar debut on the stock exchange. WHITEHAVEN COAL (WHC) hit the lists on Friday afternoon and the $1 shares opened at $1.96, fell to $1.59 and improved to $1.70. There's a scarcity factor at work here, however. The offer was only 1.9 million shares and at the time of listing 87 per cent of shares in the company were held by directors, management and employees. Whitehaven was formed in 1999 to develop the Canyon open-cut coalmine near Gunnedah. During 2008 and 2009 Whitehaven plans to develop three new mines within the Gunnedah Basin.
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WORLEYPARSONS (WOR) only has to make an announcement telling the time of day for its shares to go for another run. So it was no surprise it shot up $1.11 to a record $30.99 on Friday and closed at $30.75. It's up about $4 in a month. The latest rush followed news WorleyParsons won an engineering, procurement and construction management (EPCM) tender win from Emirates Aluminium. The EPCM contract is valued between $US75 million and $US85 million to WorleyParsons.
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A sharp reduction in vintages means less wine and therefore higher prices. But it's not working out that way for McGUIGAN SIMEON WINES (MGW), which on Friday warned the company would incur a loss of $4 million to $6 million for the full year. McGuigan's 2007 wine crush is 158,000 tonnes, 33 per cent down on last year. Chief executive officer Dane Hudson said this was the smallest vintage in Australia since 2000. "We felt the impact not only from our own vineyards, but through lower returns from customers on older winemaking contracts with fixed processing charges," he said. "Another factor is that we have been withholding some bulk wine sales due to the risk of a lower 2008 vintage driven by the continuing drought." Talk about not being able to take a trick. McGuigan fell 12c to $2.44.
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"The Australian Wine and Brandy Corporation predicted the 2007 national wine crush will be 1.3 million tonnes, 32 per cent down on the 2006 year, due to a combination of drought, frost and bushfires," Mr Hudson said. "I suspect the shortfall will be higher when final vintage numbers are released." A higher shortfall?
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WARWICK RESOURCES (WRK) called a trading halt on Wednesday but the horses had already bolted. The shares rose 15c to as high as 55c that day and closed at 50c, on almost trebled turnover of 1.1 million shares. On Friday the company announced a "spectacular" gold intercept of 1m at 160 grams/tonne gold within 8m at 22.3g/t gold at the Jimblebar project in the Pilbara region of WA. The shares rose a further 24c to 74c and closed at 61c on quadrupled turnover of 4.4 million shares. All those sellers at as low as 41c on Wednesday must be muttering between clenched teeth. ENDS !END
ASX Price at posting:
0.0¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Not Held
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