press - herald sun article on bmb

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/business/in-the-black/big-resources-in-ore-of-japanese-mining-stocks/story-fni0d787-1226716448385



BALAMARA Resources is one junior explorer that likes to punch way above its weight with no less than two tier one mining projects on the go at once.

The one that has attracted the most interest is the Togo rock phosphate project in the West African nation of the same name which has been subject to a long tender process that isfinally nearing fruition.

Balamara is one of three parties still in the running and given the 2.2 billion size of the deposit and extensive mine life it is possible that all three contenders could get a chunk of the action.

A green light for Togo would be a company maker for Balamara, even though it would come with the need to raise significant capital to develop the initial direct shipping of ore from a nearby port, let alone a second stage to further process the phosphate.

The second string in Balamara's bow is its Nowa Ruda coking coal concession in Poland, which chief executive Mike Ralston also believes could be a tier one asset, which he defines as having the potential to throw off more than $100 million of annual pre-tax earnings.

Nowa Ruda is an existing underground mine that was producing coal as recently as 1995 so restarting it with more modern equipment would be significantly cheaper than a greenfields deposit.

With a railway nearby and three Polish coke plants within 100km which are buying expensive coal from as far afield as the US, Mr Ralston said there is plenty of commercial and practical logic behind reopening Nowa Ruda.

Should Balamara win the Togo tender, the plan is to develop that within the company but list Nowa Ruda on the Warsaw exchange together with the Polish Bogdan copper project.

The two NSW projects of Peelwood and Elsienora are up for sale and three Balkan projects are also slated for divestment as Mr Ralston and Polish speaking executive chair Derek Lenartowicz try to bring more focus to Balamara's investment appeal.

Balamara is a speculative buy with unusual "two for the price of one'' exposure to some seriously big projects.