article today oz minerals

surprised no-one mentioned ths article today in the melbourne age today



Waiting for a bid as OZ boss waits on tables BARRY FITZGERALD
August 4, 2010 - 7:31AM
.If the Diggers & Dealers bash is missing anything it is the lack of a hotly contested takeover bid. There was some hope that Terry Burgess at cashed-up OZ Minerals could provide the missing ingredient by making a $800 million-plus bid for Sandfire Resources that OZ does not already own.

No such luck. Burgess - who did a very good impersonation of a head waiter when service got a bit slow at a local restaurant the other night - said that Sandfire's rejection of OZ's board seat request last week was a non-issue. It was even anticipated.

The committed runner has previously said that OZ's plans for its Sandfire move would play out between something like a half-marathon and a full marathon. But Burgess did suggest that it is now more a case of being a half-marathon.

The problem for OZ is that it does not really know what it would be bidding for, given Sandfire's highly-rated Doolgunna copper/gold discovery is yet to be fully defined. What's more, the deposit is of the type that, elsewhere in the world, tend to occur in clusters.

On that score, Thundelarra's exploration hit at the Red bore prospect, some 500 metres from the Sandfire's main deposit at Doolgunna, showed that yep, this could be the start of a major new copper province for Australia.

Burgess said Doolgunna was an interesting deposit all right. "But potentially it's an interesting province." He added that OZ was keeping its eye on everything that moved in the region.

Sandfire chief, the bustling Karl Simich, could not agree more. "It's almost inconceivable that we have stumbled across the best part of the field. Prospectivity at depth is great, along strike is also great." So even if Sandfire was in the mood for a takeover, what sort of value would it ascribe to its shares?

Simich said: "It might be worth $50 a share. Who knows?"