Richard Elman's Hong Kong commodities trader Noble Group has been busy of late. This week it agreed to a $20 million convertible note investment in George Jones' iron ore hopeful Sundance Resources, which is seeking a partner to help fund and develop its massive but complex Mbalam venture straddling the Cameroon-Republic of Congo border. Maybe another of Elman's new investments could lend a helping hand. Just a month ago Elman said Noble had agreed to pump $US500 million into former Xstrata Davis' new mining venture, X2 Partners. Stacked with ex-Xstrata people, X2 will know a bit or two about operating in Africa. In fact, one of Xstrata's big portfolio weaknesses was its lack of iron ore, at a time when sector poster children BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto were generating stupendous amounts of cash from the steel ingredient. Could Sundance be Davis' chance to finally join the iron ore bandwagon? Food for thought.
SDL Price at posting:
11.5¢ Sentiment: LT Buy Disclosure: Held
