In the Age & Australian . He also put a couple of mil into...

In the Age & Australian . He also put a couple of mil into JMS

Ore body
Robin Bromby December 21, 2006
KEN Talbot may be keeping a low profile after being caught up in a Queensland investigation concerning a former state minister, but no one should think he's not busy behind the scenes.
While his 35.55 per cent of Macarthur Coal is being run by others for the moment, the private side of his business continues. Yesterday, Talbot Group Holdings (TGH) took a $2.69 million placement to give it 15 per cent of Queensland Ores, which is getting into the business of mining tungsten and molybdenum.
Mr Talbot, pictured, made a secret $300,000 loan to former Queensland health minister Gordon Nuttall. While Mr Talbot has strenuously denied any wrongdoing, he decided to step down from Macarthur until the probe involving Mr Nuttall was complete.

But Mr Talbot's private company has certainly shown it has a deft touch.

Since TGH took a 7.5 per cent stake in Southern Gold in late October, the listed company's shares are up 45 per cent. (Southern Gold is now seen as primarily a uranium play.)

Then, two weeks later, TGH put up the money for 11.7 per cent of another South Australian uranium explorer, Marathon Resources. Since that deal, Marathon shares have risen 25 per cent.

Mr Talbot clearly likes Queensland Ores enough to agree to a substantial premium. He dealt into that company at 35c a share, compared with Queensland Ore's opening on Tuesday of 25c (the shares rose 1.5c to 30.5c yesterday).

One of the reasons Mr Talbot would have been asked to pay so much was to get the agreement of Johnny Kahlbetzer, son of Buenos Aires-based John Kahlbetzer (net worth $400 million, according to BRW) who owns a string of farming properties here, producing cotton, wheat, rice, beef and wool.

Kahlbetzer Jnr's vehicle was a seed investor in Queensland Ores and held a 18.9 per cent slice before this latest dilution. Anyone wanting to dilute his interest has to pay a good premium.

Talbot Group has assets of $450 million, including the interests in Macarthur Coal. It has moved to acquire strategic resources stakes after selling six Queensland hotels for more than $100 million.

Mr Talbot has moved into Queensland Ores at a time when the share price is considered to be in its pre-take-off phase.

Design engineering has begun at the Wolfram Camp tungsten-molybdenum project, 90km west of Cairns, with production expected to begin before the end of September next year.

The field was first developed in 1906 and was at one stage the world's largest producer of wolframite and molybdenum concentrates. The miner owns a copper project south of Gladstone.