Another good opportunity for ABV to sell some more brakes to...

Another good opportunity for ABV to sell some more brakes to Xstrata. I know their target is to sell to iron ore mines and open cut coal mines.

Xstrata said it had received acceptances for another 32.13 per cent of the company in addition to its 18.99 stake, which pushed its interest to just above 51 per cent.

Xstrata Coal chief Peter Freyberg said he was extremely pleased at the reaction to his company's $514 million bid for Sphere.

"I urge all shareholders who have not yet accepted our offer to take advantage of the automatic extension by accepting our offer as soon as possible," he said.

The Swiss mining giant had offered investors $3.00 per Sphere share but had warned bid would expire mid-month if it did not secure at least a 50 per cent stake in Sphere by tomorrow.

Sphere has three large-scale iron ore projects in Mauritania in north-western Africa.
The Sphere board had already recommended the Xstrata takeover in preference to a rival refinancing proposal from Sin-Tang Developments that would have taken its interest to 30 per cent without launching a takeover.

Sin-Tang has offered to secure funding for Sphere to develop its Askaf iron ore project in Mauritania, one of Sphere's three large-scale iron ore projects.

The Sin-Tang proposal is not a takeover bid, but involves an equity raising seeking $110 million at $3.25 per share.

Sin-Tang is the second-largest shareholder in Sphere.

Sphere shares were trading up one cent at $2.99 at 1.16pm (AEDT