Oz Minerals on Carrapateena shortlist after Sandfire play: Stock Resource
Michael Bennet From: The Australian July 08, 2010 11:37AM
OZ Minerals is one of six bidders to make the shortlist for the Carrapateena copper project in South Australia, analysts say.
Hot on the heels of its $100 million investment in Perth copper-gold play Sandfire Resources this week, Stock Resource reckons OzMin has its eyes on the project being sold by Canadian mining firm Teck and private prospector Rudy Gomez.
Carrapateena lies in the same geological province as OzMins Prominent Hill and BHP Billitons massive Olympic Dam and is tipped to cost about $2 billion to develop. We understand that it is also on the short-list of bidders, the analysts said. (But) it is subject to a competitive tender process that presumably involves well-funded Chinese parties.
This has probably contributed to the decision by OZ Minerals to acquire a strategic stake in Sandfire - essentially representing an option should it miss out on Carrapateena.
The Sandfire investment, in which OzMin acquired a 19.9 per cent stake at a premium, threw some light on what OzMin will do with its $1bn war-chest, acquired through the sale of the majority of its assets to Chinas Minmetals.
In a note to clients today, Sydney-based Stock Resource, which focuses on mining stocks, said OZ had attained a blocking stake in Sandfire while it assesses the asset, but liked the move overall.
A key question for investors, since the rebirth of OZ Minerals, has been how it spends its $1 billion war-chest, the analysts said.
OZ Minerals has been a winner in the new mineral resource rent tax (but) despite this good news, the OZ Minerals share price continues to languish.
The company provides exposure to our preferred base metal (copper), and at current prices is simply cheap.
In early trade, OZ rose 2 cents to $1.055. Stock Resource recommends the stock as a buy up to $1.20.
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So, we have a post from Gdaf saying that any buy of SFR under $7.68/ share is good value (makes the 19% seem a bargain). We have the AFR giving OZL a good rap. We have The Australian saying that we are on the Carapateena shortlist.
I would suspect that there has been a lot of work done by Richard Hedstrom's team since last Oct to make sure that they make best use of the OZL cash for the benefit of the business. All that work would appear to be coming to fruitition.
Finally, for all us long suffering OZL holders, OZL seems to be kicking some goals. Great to see.
HT1
OZL Price at posting:
$10.65 Sentiment: Hold Disclosure: Held
