Cape Lambert sells copper stake to Xstrata.Michael Bennet From:...

Cape Lambert sells copper stake to Xstrata.

Michael Bennet From: The Australian February 04, 2011

CAPE Lambert Resources has offloaded its 25 per cent stake in the Lady Loretta copper project to Swiss giant Xstrata for $30 million. The sale boosts Xstrata's interest in the Queensland operation to 100 per cent, upon approvals expected in coming months.

In early trade, shares in Cape Lambert, run by Perth entrepreneur Tony Sage, jumped 1.6 per cent to 62 cents on news of the sale.

The resources investment house acquired the project through its $135m acquisition of failed miner CopperCo.

Cape Lambert has been offloading assets since the purchase of that vehicle and in May 2010 sold CopperCo's main asset, the Lady Annie copper mine in Queensland, to China Sci-Tech Holdings for $135m.

Sage's wheeling and dealing is unlikely to be over, with Cape Lambert holding more assets from the CopperCo deal, including the Sappes gold project in Greece.

He also this week said the company had started a sale process for its Marampa iron ore project in Sierra Leone, which he expects to be worth at least $500m.

"The sale of the company's minor interest in the Lady Loretta project was part of an ongoing process of crystallising shareholder value from the CopperCo acquisition," said Sage.

Elsewhere, Sage has also made a handy profit from his investment in recent float Glory Resources, which hails from his Perth soccer team Perth Glory.

The Canada-focused minnow listed last month after raising $2.5m from its initial public offering at 20c. Early today Glory traded at 27.5c, handing Sage a quick profit on his 4 per cent stake.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/city-beat/

alpha141 said " I think this will be also a relationship builder with Xstrata which may be even more important down the track, so future dealings (who are ramping up over in Africa too) are smoother too with the big players."

I'm not ruling out Xstrata/Glencore for Marampa , recently (see Dec Q report) offtake agreement with CFE for Leichhardt's copper and big offtake agreement with London Mining for their Marampa's iron ore.