move over twiggy, there's a new man in town, page-6

The article comes up if you google sundance resources. I didn't pay for anything. Here it is:

Move over Twiggy, there's a new man in town

by: Paul Garvey
From:The Australian
February 14, 201212:00AM

FORMER steel trader Socrates Vasiliades of Melbourne looks increasingly on track to follow in the footsteps of Andrew Forrest and Gina Rinehart, and generate incredible wealth from iron ore.

Mr Vasiliades's private company, London-based Core Mining, is rapidly advancing to an eventual listing that could crystalise a personal fortune in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

Core is evaluating the huge Avima iron ore deposit in the Republic of Congo, with more than one billion tonnes of iron ore resources defined so far.

The resource is split between a high-grade and low-grade portion, both of which should be profitable to mine but only one of which is Core's top priority.

"I envisage the high-grade material will keep us and our grandchildren in business before we look at the low grade," he said last week in an interview on the sidelines of the Mining Indaba forum in Cape Town.








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His background in steel trading has helped him attract Russian steel giant Severstal and Swiss commodities trader Glencore as major backers, and expectations are building that Core can become something special.

Getting a precise handle on the value of Core is a difficult business, but comparing the size of the Avima project with similar projects suggests it could have a market capitalisation of more than $1 billion if and when it lists.

With Mr Vasiliades, 48, owning the bulk of Core, he could rapidly emerge as one of the wealthiest individuals from the Australian mining industry.

Severstal was the first major player to back Core, taking a 16.5 per cent stake in the group in May 2010 for $US15 million.

The terms of Glencore's entry into Core last April has not been disclosed, but the industry grapevine is alive with rumours that it was substantially more than the amount paid by Severstal.

For now, Mr Vasiliades is in no rush to take Core public.

"There's enormous value to be kept in keeping it private and advancing it further, and there's a lot of interest in the company," he said. "Whilst that interest is there I think it's good to remain private.

"What we're finding is that as a private company we can demonstrate the value in a very clear manner. We're not subject to the public market fluctuations.

"There's pros and cons with both. I'm not against listing the company, it is a possibility, but it's not at the front of our minds."

More than 1 billion tonnes of ore has been identified at Avima, including a high-grade portion of 455 million tonnes grading 56.1 per cent iron, and magnetic surveys over the project have identified a further exploration target totalling a huge 5.3 billion tonnes.

To put that into context, Sundance Resources' Mbalam iron ore project, which is just over the border from Avima and at a similar stage of development, has a high-grade portion of 521.7 million tonnes at 60.7 per cent iron and is on the receiving end of a $1.7bn takeover bid from China's Hanlong Mining.

And Avima's high-grade resource is 13 times larger than the resource of fellow Republic of Congo play African Iron, which is subject of a $286m takeover bid.

Core has about 350 staff, and Mr Vasiliades has recruited former Rio Tinto employees as chief operating officer, vice-president of mine development, and vice-president of rail and port.

Mr Vasiliades made the jump from steel trader to iron ore entrepreneur in 2005 after watching steel trading margins shrink.

"Unless traders had the security of supply, trading was becoming a very transparent business, so the margins were eroding," he said.

"I liked the industry, and at the time everything was very quiet in the iron ore space."

As the Avima resources get increasingly bigger, Core is turning its attention to how it will develop the port and rail infrastructure needed to unlock the ore.

Mr Vasiliades said the company was exploring the potential to share infrastructure with one of two neighbouring project

The four billion-tonne Belinga project sits over the border in Gabon, with recent media reports suggesting the huge deposit has been awarded to BHP Billiton.

And Core has spoken to Sundance Resources, whose Mbalam iron ore project straddles the border between the Republic of Congo and Cameroon.

Before the year is out, Core expects to have released a resource upgrade and have an infrastructure agreement in place.

Unsurprisingly, Core has had no shortage of investment banks offering their services but despite the attention, Mr Vasiliades negotiated his Glencore deal without the help of any banks.

"We've been overwhelmed, but it's nice to be in that position," he said of the attention the company had received from eager bankers.

And with Avima likely to get even bigger, that attention is unlikely to abate any time soon.