Article from AFR online today:
All eyes on Burston and Energio
PUBLISHED: 2 hours 34 MINUTES AGO
Edited by Sarah Thompson and Anthony Macdonald
Can lighting strike twice for former African Iron chairman Ian Burston?
Investors are watching the man who recently sold iron ore hopeful African Iron to South Africa’s Exxaro Resources for $340 million to see whether he can do it again with Energio.
Energio is a $50 million ASX-listed company chaired by Burston, which last week released its maiden resource at its Agbaja Project in Nigeria.
In one year, the company has delivered a maiden resource of 488 million tonnes, with an in-situ iron grade of 42.7 per cent classified as inferred.
The estimate only covered about 15 per cent of its Agbaja Project, with another update scheduled for June 2013.
Broker RFC Ambrian said Energio had the four requirements for potential success; scale, infrastructure, minimal beneficiation and good management.
“First-mover status in Nigeria has enabled the company to peg an extremely large channel iron ore project in central Nigeria, and we expect the resource to grow significantly going forward,” the broker said.
Foster Stockbroking said Energio’s was the first-ever JORC (joint ore reserves committee) iron ore resource reported in Nigeria and had been achieved in less than 12 months from the start of drilling in October 2011.
“EIO has a first mover advantage in Nigeria and we expect the country to begin to attract investment and interest from other mining/exploration companies following the success that EIO has had to date,” the broker said.
Foster said African Iron’s takeover in March valued the company at more than $US6 a tonne.
EIO Price at posting:
23.0¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
