Gindalbie says China deal a long processPosted Sat May 9, 2009...

Gindalbie says China deal a long process

Posted Sat May 9, 2009 12:34am AEST

West Australian miner Gindalbie Metals says gaining Federal Government approval for its Chinese investment deal has been a long process.

Yesterday, the Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB) allowed the Chinese-owned AnSteel to increase its stake in Gindalbie to 36 per cent.

Gindalbie says without Chinese investment, it would not have been able to develop an iron ore project near Geraldton.

Gindalbie says the extra $126 million will allow it to develop the Karara Project.

Gindalbie chairman George Jones says he hopes development can begin within the year.

"I anticipate taking until the end of the September quarter with all the other regulatory approvals and we should be able to hit the ground running on this project in the last quarter of this year," he said.

Mr Jones says dealing with the FIRB has been an exhaustive process.

"It's topical at the moment, Chinese investment in Australia," he said.

"We understood what the requirements were, what the Australian Government is trying to achieve and we thought we'd tailored everything we were doing with our Chinese partners to accommodate that and it's taken a little longer than we'd have liked but we now have it."

But analyst Peter Strachan says the Government is right to be cautious about foreign investment.

"It's wise for the regulators to take a slow and measured approach to make sure that when these deals are done, they're not going to put the Australian taxpayers at a long term disadvantage," he said.