ramelius cashed up, page-9

Ramelius on acquisition trail after cashing out of Dioro

STUART McKINNON,
The West Australian
February 23, 2010, 10:50 am

Ramelius Resources says it is on the acquisition trail after cashing out of its failed bid for gold mining junior Dioro Exploration.

Ramelius said today it had offloaded all the Avoca Resources shares it received as scrip payment for selling into the company's cash and scrip offer for Dioro Exploration.

The news follows yesterday's announcement that Avoca had secured more than the 90 per cent holding in Dioro it needed to move to compulsory acquisition.

Ramelius, which had been accumulating Dioro shares over the past few months as it tried to mount a challenge to Avoca's bid, said today it had netted $20.1 million in the sale of 11.16 million Dioro shares through Euroz Securities.

The company said it had also received $22.3 million from the cash component of Avoca's offer, bringing to $42.4 million the total netted from its 37.51 per cent stake in the junior.

Chairman Robert Kennedy said the funds would give Ramelius $65.7 million in cash, which placed it in an excellent position to take advantage of future growth opportunities to expand its exploration, resource and production base.

"Ramelius is debt free and is currently in the process of stoping high grade ore at the Wattle Dam underground gold mine near Kambalda," he said.

"Proceeds from the sale of gold from stoping ore will significantly increase cash held by Ramelius."

Ramelius shares were 0.5 cents lower to 55 cents at 10.45am.

http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/business/a/-/business/6842592/ramelius-on-acquisition-trail-after-cashing-out-of-dioro/