From Sydney Morning Herald 26/02/05; Iron juniors not overawed...

From Sydney Morning Herald 26/02/05; Iron juniors not overawed by the big boys

Aztec Treasured:

Finally there's the Ian Burston chaired Aztec Resources, which is cranking up efforts to get its Koolan Island deposit up and running.

Burston used to run Rio's Hamersley Iron divesion and his efforts to revive the old BHP mine off the Kimberley coast seem to be attracting the attention of investors after a slow start.

Earlier this month, Aztec announced the chaps at Grange Securities and Cartesian Capital had helped raise $24.3 million from the exercise of options and a share placement.

This means Aztec can fund its bankable feasibility study of Koolan Island, which is due to be finished by the end of April.

The placement was before the company signed a memorandum of understanding with Chinese group CITIC. China's MinMetals, Sinom China, and "a major Japanese company" have also signed up and Aztec has customers for all of its expected production of about 22million tonnes over the life of the mine.

Total resources stand at 39.5 million tonnes at 64.8% Iron ore. Further exploration continues though investors should keep in mind they are dealing with a mine project very close to the ocean which always raises the risk profile of a company.

The exploration efforts are aimed at early production of around 2 million tonnes a year. The iron ore price rise also could change Aztec's earnings dramatically. A pre-feasibility review of cash flows recently predicted the company could generate an extra $12 to $18 million in pretax earnings with a smaller price increase of 20 t0 30%.

Not a bad effort given the company was expecting to make (pretax) $20 million a year before factoring in any price increases.