oz minerals' asset sale imminent

OZ Minerals' asset sale 'imminent'February 19, 2009
SPECULATION has surfaced that OZ Minerals will today announce the sale of its undeveloped Martabe gold deposit to a syndicate led by former founder and managing director Owen Hegarty for a price of $150 million-$200 million.

Talk that former Jubilee boss Kerry Harmanis was about to acquire the Golden Grove base metals mine was said to be off the mark, but a deal on the asset is not far off.

OZ is the subject of a recommended $2.6 billion bid from China's state-owned Minmetals. OZ was facing voluntary administration by the end of the month without the Chinese deal, which the Federal Government must clear first.

OZ has been urgently seeking a refinancing of the debt before a banking syndicate-imposed deadline of February 27. As part of that refinancing, OZ sought deals for the Martabe gold project in Indonesia and Golden Grove in Western Australia. Minmetals' proposed bid price is 82.5¢ a share, cash.

BARRY FitzGERALD