Thought i would put up a few articles i found on XAM, most are just commenting on the recent two announcements, but shows the company is getting some press.
By: Esmarie Swanepoel 22nd November 2011 PERTH (miningweekly.com) - The Mongolia-focused joint venture (JV) vehicle between ASX-listed Xanadu Mines and Asian commodity trader Noble Group has acquired another coal project.
The Khavtsgait coal project is located in northern Mongolia, and covers around 2 869 ha. The exploration licence overlies an early to middle Mesozoic-aged coal-bearing sedimentary basin, similar to those known to host premium hard coking coal deposits.
Xanadu said in a statement on Tuesday that the Khavtsgait opportunity was recognised as part of a thorough regional reconnaissance exploration programme conducted by the JV vehicle, known as Ekhgoviin Chuluu (EC).
Initial exploration, which included trenching, indicated that the stratigraphic sequence at Khavtsgait was consistent with EC’s newly discovered Nuurstei coking coal project, which was about 60 km to the west.
The deal represented the third major metallurgical coal acquisition in Mongolia since EC was created in March this year.
“The Khavtsgait acquisition further underpins the core strategy of EC, to identify and develop significant metallurgical coal opportunities, close to existing infrastructure, that will meet anticipated current and future demands from China and North Asian markets,” said Xanadu chairperson Brian Thornton.
He noted that with the acquisition of a further metallurgical coal project in the Khuvsgul province, EC’s exploration focus on the newly emerging metallurgical coal basins in northern Mongolia was coming to fruition.
The Khavtsgait acquisition followed EC’s recently announced Javkhlant coking coal JV, located on the Chinese border in south-west Mongolia.
Xanadu and Noble formed an alliance in February this year, to explore and develop coking coal, iron-ore and ferroalloy opportunities in Mongolia.
Under the JV agreement, Noble would place more than 10.4-million shares, at 70c a share to take its equity stake in Xanadu to 9.9%. The funds from the placement would be used exclusively for exploration and development opportunities in Mongolia.
