cash & listed shares of 68c + in-situ $12.5b, page-11

"You try selling a high % of total market cap of an investment, and see how many buyers are available"

Seems with MTE the buyers are queuing up for their stake in MTE, if these reports are even half true MLM is sitting on a treasure trove and their stake would be hotly contested rather than hard to unload.


www.mineweb.com/mineweb/view/mineweb/en/page38?oid=130798&sn=Detail

Indian companies compete for $700m in MetroCoal coal assets
Three Indian companies are bidding to get their hands on the thermal coal assets of Australia's MetroCoal's in a rush to secure raw material for their domestic thermal power plant capacity.
Author: Shivom Seth
Posted: Tuesday , 05 Jul 2011


MUMBAI -
Three Indian firms are in the fray to acquire a stake in Australian coal mining firm, MetroCoal for $700 million. Reliance Power, Aditya Birla Group's Essel Mining and the RPG Group have pushed aside the other contenders in a race to acquire two thermal coal bearing blocks with proven reserves of 1.2 billion tonnes.
MetroCoal Limited is an Australian coal company focusing on coal projects in the Surat Basin and surrounding locations in south-east Queensland. ASX-listed Metallica Minerals owns MetroCoal and has 12 exploration blocks in various stages of commercial production.
The Indian firms have been seeking foreign coal assets to supply their domestic power plants. Reliance Power is also in the auction process for Wesfarmers' Premier Coal, while the Essar Group is seeking to expand by acquiring more coal from Australia, Indonesia and Africa to meet its domestic need.
Analysts said Australia exported 274 metric tonnes of coal in CY2009, comprising 135 metric tonnes metallurgical and 139 metric tonnes thermal coal, accounting for approximately one third of global coal exports. Australia, with 64%, dominates metallurgical coal exports. In 2009, analysts said, China imported a record 19 metric tonnes of Australian metallurgical coal.
Officials in the know said MetroCoal had appointed Caldrex Capital to market and manage expressions of interest for a joint venture partner for the wholly-owned Wandoan West tenement.
The East Brisbane, Queensland-based energy company said in its 2009 prospectus that it was targeting to explore the Bundi project area which holds between 240 million tonnes and 335 million tonnes of thermal coal suited predominantly for underground mining.
The company said this contributes towards its overall exploration target of between 2.5 and 3.5 billion tonnes by the end of 2011 for its Surat Basin coal projects in southeastern Queensland state.
The Indian companies have reportedly been shortlisted for the final round of talks for the Surat Basin coal region project, which received a conditional approval announcement by the Commonwealth government for a proposed $3 billion coal project at the end of March 2011.
MetroCoal's major exploration tenements are both located in the Surat Basin region and are adjacent to Xstrata's Wandoan coal project. Recently, Xstrata's Wandoan coal project proposed a 30 million tonne per annum open-cut thermal coal mine.
In April 2010, coal explorer MetroCoal also signed a $30 million coal deal with China. Under the agreement, China Coal Import and Export Company acquired a 51% interest in MetroCoal's EPC Columboola coal exploration permit in Queensland's Surat Basin.
The joint venture was to spend a minimum of $4 million within the first two years of the agreement. The company, which holds an extensive portfolio of tenements in the Surat Basin, has now put a sale sign on two of its thermal coal bearing blocks which have evinced buyer interest from India.
Given the significant increase in MetroCoal's share price over the past weeks, Metallica Minerals recently provided an update on its cash position and the approximate value of the company's ASX-listed investments. Metallica's listed share investments and cash total A$59 million as compared with Metallica's market capitalisation of around A$37.0 million, the company said.
MetroCoal also recently boosted the thermal coal JORC inferred resource at the Bundi Project in southeast Queensland by 56% to 595 million tonnes, up from 381 million tonnes.