I don't hold. I hold CEO and have been watching AKM since August...

I don't hold. I hold CEO and have been watching AKM since August when CEO announced a change of strategy towards Mongolian Coal. Wish I had bought in back then that's for sure. Anyway, I posted this on the CEO thread for information purposes, and thought you AKM followers would enjoy the read.

This is from todays AFR. One of two articles on Aspire.

""Noble Group's accumulation of 4.1 per cent of Mongolian coking coal group Aspire Mining not only underscores the mining sector's growing interest in one of the world's most sparsely populated countries, but also serves as another reminder that there is plenty more corporate activity to come in the coal space.

Hong Kong-based Noble- which has a strategy of buying up stakes in early stages projects and is said to hold shares in other Mongolian coal hopefuls of less than 5 per cent- has been accumulating its Aspire stake since last year with the help of Investec (which also helped Noble dump its Aston Resources stake last year).

In this case, Noble's move on Aspire- which has a maiden Joint Ore Reserves Committee compliant reserve of 330 million tonnes at Ovoot but is more than 500 kilometres away from the nearest rail line- also means Robert Friedland's SouthGobi Resources is free t obid for the $250 million coal group.

Whether Friedland's company, which has a foot on 19.9 per cent of Aspire, will move is unclear.

TThe move on the low-profile Apsire is just the latest sign of interest in Mongolia's coking coal deposits. Miners are increasingly seeking to diversify their production bas and develop new coking coal regions (Rio's bid for Riversdale Mining is the most recent high-profile example).

It makes sense.

The worlds' operating steelmaking coal deposits are concentrated in less than a handful of regions: western Canada, the US's Appalachia region, CHina's Shanxi and Queensland's Bowen Basin.

Of those, the flooded Bowen Basin clearly dominates, exporting 134 mt of metallurgical coal in 2009 compared to Canada's 22 mt or Appalachia's 34 mt, based on figures from Teck.

But there is potential for new sources of supply.

Mongolia is just one of those, with Indonesia's Maruwai, Russia's Elga and Mozambique's Moatize some other regions tipped for substantial development over time.

Australia's stock exchange has been a home for some of these smaller coal hopefuls, and it's at this level that many expect more corporate activity will play out.

In the meantime, Mongolia isn't standing idle.

Mongolian exporters have already replaced Australia as China's largest source of coking-coal imports.

And bids to develop Mongolia's lucrative Tavan Tolgoi deposit, which contains 6.4 billion tonnes of thermal and coking coal, were due yesterday to the country's state-owned mining company, Erdenes MGL.

Japanese trading houses Itochu, Sumitomo, Marubeni and Sojitz have reportedly formed a consortium to bid for the project, possibly in concert with Korean groups and Russia's state-owned railway company.

A separate consortium is said to include Mitsui, China Shenhua Energy and Peabody Energy.

BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto, Xstrata, Anglo American, Vale and India's Jindal Steel have also previously expressed interest in Tavan Tolgoi, but it is unclear whether they will lodge a formal offer.

Among the biggest challenges facing the development of Mongolian Coal is transport and whether it will export to more markets than China.

Rio's Tom Albanese has said the miner will reserve judgement on the potential of Mongolian coal until it became clear whether all of it would be sent to a single market or if there was potential for it to become part of global seaborne trade and fetch higher prices.

On the transport front, that is an issue with which any developing coal region must grapple.

Aspire supporters will be hoping the appearance of two large industry players on its register will mean it's not left to develop a rail network on its own. Certainly, if the share price is any guide (Aspire shares have increased in value more than fourfold since October) the market is more than willing to take the chance they will succeed."