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www.theage.com.au MARKET DATA MONEY PORTFOLIOS & WATCHLISTS QUOTES SMALL BUSINESS CSIRO pegs stake in coal technology Email Printer friendly version Normal font Large font Barry Fitzgerald November 8, 2007
Advertisement THE CSIRO is to become the biggest shareholder in Metex Resources, the Perth-based group that floated 14 years ago as a Victorian gold explorer but that is now developing an underground coal energy technology.
Metex is to acquire the CSIRO's half-share in their joint-venture company developing the so-called underground coal gasification (UCG) technology for $2.5 million and 100 million Metex shares, giving the CSIRO a 27 per cent (fully diluted) stake in the company.
Metex plans to build a UCG demonstration plant in Queensland's Surat Basin, with construction planned to start in January. It has an inferred coal resource of 100 million tonnes, which is estimated to contain 1000 petajoules of potentially recoverable energy.
UCG technology involves drilling bore holes from the surface to the underground coal seam and gasifying the coal in situ to produce a syngas suitable for conversion into feedstock for power generation or for conversion into liquid fuels and chemicals.
Metex shares closed steady at 38¢, valuing the group at more than $108 million.
Another UCG group, Melbourne-based Cougar Energy, was queried earlier in the week about the run in its share price from 5.8¢ a share on October 29 to a high of 9.6¢ on Tuesday. It said yesterday it had only two competitors in the race to be the first UCG producer in Australia — Metex and Linc Energy.
Cougar noted that both Metex and Linc had market capitalisations of more than $100 million compared with its $34 million market value. Cougar also confirmed that it had reached agreement with Ergo Exergy Technologies to use the Canadian group's UCG technology. Cougar shares closed at 8.7¢.
Good to see media attention on the sector.
CXY Price at posting:
0.0¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
