kiernan may not want csm but csm does have a few commodities...

kiernan may not want csm but csm does have a few commodities that he wants. noble group still hold 6% of csm and will hold 30.6% of tfe shares if shareholders vote in favour of the restructuring. read on.....

Territory to be ConsMin Mark 2: Kiernan

Rebecca Lawson
Wednesday, 9 May 2007

A NEW direction and bigger minerals portfolio for Territory Iron has resulted in a name change for the company and the retirement of its managing director, as chairman Michael Kiernan bills the transformation "ConsMin Mark 2".

Michael Kiernan

Territory Iron announced it would change its name to Territory Resources to reflect its future direction as a "diverse carbon steel commodity supplier".

Speaking to MiningNews.net, Kiernan said the long-term goal would see a transformation of Territory into a multi-billion dollar company.

"Well, I've got a long-term goal that within five years I'll have a business capitalised at $2.5 billion and that'll be a combination of half a dozen minerals," he said.

"[Minerals included] will obviously be iron ore (hematite and magnetite), also be – possibly and not set in stone – manganese, chromite, minerals sands, in particular zircon, and uranium."

Kiernan said Territory's perfect vision would be to produce around 10-12 million tonnes of iron ore per year – both hematite and magnetite – a couple of million tonnes of manganese, half a million tonnes of chromite, about a hundred thousand tonnes of zircon concentrate and uranium.

"We'll be in production by the end of the year, developing a cash flow, look at projects that are within a couple of years in development and then also have the longer term projects," he said.

"[In relation to iron ore] we would look at smaller hematite projects although they're few and far between.

"We would like to become involved in a partnership, joint venture or merger with a magnetite producer and simply Territory Resources … would be a vehicle that Noble Group and myself primarily will build up to be a ConsMin Mark 2."

Kiernan became involved with Territory Iron earlier this year through his associates Noble Group and the investment company Crawley Resources. In February, Territory began a $30 million capital-raising through Crawley Resources via the placement of 60 million shares.

The Hong Kong-based Noble Group holds a 70% equity in Crawley, with the remaining 30% owned by Kiernan.

Kiernan added that he would be keeping a close eye on Grange Resources' Southdown operation and Gindalbie Metals' Karara project – naming them the two best magnetite plays in Western Australia – as potential projects Territory could become involved with.

"The companies [Grange and Gindalbie] are well aware of Territory's desire but it's early days yet," he said.

Another possible target for Territory is the nearby OM Holdings' Bootu Creek manganese mine, where Kiernan said manganese would be a "natural area I would default to".

"It may well be natural that OM and Territory Resources talk to each other but nothing has been agreed," Kiernan said, adding that OM wanted to iron out problems at the mine first.

"Certainly there are opportunities in Australia and there's one or two opportunities overseas with boutique manganese projects."

Meanwhile, the retirement of Doug Stewart was not a cause of any fallout between the managing director and Territory's new direction, with Kiernan saying that Stewart made the call to cut ties with the company to make way for a person who is skilled in the areas Territory would like to head towards.

"He always wanted to step down once the project [Frances Creek] was up and running anyway and that was his request," Kiernan said.

Stewart told Miningnews.net: "I'm about to turn 60, I'm going into retirement or semi-retirement and it just suits me at this stage,"

"I think having got over the hump for getting Territory Iron going, I think it's probably a good time for youth and enthusiasm to supplant old age instead of some old fart sleeping in the corner."

Stewart added that he wanted to go on walkabout for about a month before deciding in what capacity he wanted to be involved with the resources industry, which he said he still wanted to be a part of.

He has been with the company since its inception.

Frances Creek's total resource currently stands at 9.73Mt at 60.7% iron, with production estimated around 1.5Mt per year, and Kiernan said he would like to see that capacity double as soon as possible.

Shares in Territory climbed up 4.5c to 74c in early afternoon trading today.