nine people knew of niagaras tests

Where to now ?


Nine people knew of Niagara's tests

Jamie Freed
May 18, 2007

POTENTIAL Poseidon resurrector Niagara Mining yesterday revealed at least nine people had known about its positive drilling results for more than a month before releasing them to the market on Monday evening.

But it has not yet made public details of its negotiations on a nickel marketing agreement with Fortescue Metals announced on Wednesday which may also shed light on Niagara's mysterious 59 per cent share price spike on Monday.

On Monday evening, Niagara told the stock exchange it was unable to provide an explanation for the share price spike beyond the attention it had attracted since Fortescue chief executive Andrew Forrest last month announced plans to join its board. It also mentioned prominent investors - at least one of which also holds shares in Fortescue - had recently purchased Niagara shares.

Niagara received the query about the drilling results from the stock exchange on Tuesday - a day before the announcement of the Fortescue marketing deal - but the response was not made public until yesterday.

Niagara said it had known about "certain parts" of the drilling results since about April 10, but did not release them due to the "incomplete nature of this information and the various sampling, data compilation and internal reporting processes".

It provided a list of eight specific people plus one assay laboratory which were aware of the results before the announcement.

It remains to be seen whether the stock exchange sent a second query on Wednesday after the announcement of the Fortescue marketing deal. If so, the response should be revealed today based on standard Australian Securities Exchange deadlines for such queries.

Niagara shares closed 2c lower at $1.49 yesterday.

Meanwhile, Magma Metals, which owns tenements neighbouring Niagara's, was forced to respond to a query after its share price rose from 35c last Friday to a peak of 65c yesterday. Magma said the rise might be attributed to its "extensive Laverton tenement package" near Niagara's project. Magma shares closed 1c lower at 55c.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/business/nine-people-knew-of-niagaras-tests/2007/05/17/1178995320418.html