ajm mentioned by barry fitzgerald in the age

Altura Mining is one of them. It owns a 30 per cent interest in the Mount Webber direct shipping iron ore project in the Pilbara, which, 70 per cent owner and manager Atlas Iron wants to get into production by the end of next year.

Mount Webber, as a 3 million-tonnes-a-year producer, is a key part of Atlas's plan to get to a 12 million-tonnes-a-year run rate at its Pilbara operations in the same time frame. And if anyone in the Pilbara is going to deliver on what it says it will, it is Atlas.

So Garimpeiro and others are more than happy to pencil in Altura as a 900,000 tonnes-a-year producer in the near term. Assume prices of $120 a tonne, production cash costs of about $45 a tonne and $40 million (100 per cent) in capital expenditure, and Altura will be bagging more than $50 million annually in free cash in its early years.

Not bad for a company which at Friday's closing price of 17.5c a share was being valued at $57 million ($81 million fully diluted). Before the iron ore cash rolls in, Altura first has to strike a joint venture operating agreement with Atlas.

You've got to wonder if Atlas, now a $3 billion company as a result of its success at becoming the ''fourth'' force in the Pilbara, would prefer to take Mount Webber forward on a 100 per cent basis by buying Altura out of the joint venture. If that comes to pass, the selling price of the 30 per cent stake would have to be well north of Altura's current market capitalisation.

Altura would not be left with nothing to do, either. Its management team has a coal background and is as keen as mustard to establish the company as a coal producer in Indonesia.

Assuming mining approvals are in the bag by the September quarter, Altura is all set to go with its wholly owned Tabalong thermal coal project in South Kalimantan, Indonesia.

Altura has a late 2011 start of production target after spending a relatively low $10 million in capital for 500,000 tonnes-a-year in output. The resource is good for seven years and at current prices, the project would throw off about $20 million annually in free cash.

Given the experience of the management in operating in Indonesian coal, Tabalong is very much seen as a starter project for the company in the country.

If Mount Webber and Tabalong don't cook your goose, the recent addition of the Pilgangoora lithium project in Western Australia might do the trick. Early work has returned shallow, thick and relatively high-grade lithium intercepts, including one intersection of 54 metres grading 1.79 per cent lithium oxide.

The results to date have been good enough for Altura to whack on an ''exploration target'' for Pilgangoora of 6-9 million tonnes grading 1.5 per cent to 1.7 per cent lithium oxide.

Lithium - the lightest of all metals and found in the medicine bags of psychiatrists - is used in glass, ceramics and batteries for electronic equipment. But the real buzz around the metal is the forecast growth in demand for batteries in hybrid vehicles