walking around with a pot of gold

Talk about dumb 'luck'

Here is a story about a bunch of Indians with bags of gold in Australia who fell over a phosphate mine...

"KOLKATA: State-run NMDC on Monday agreed to team up with Australia's Minemakers Ltd to develop a phosphate mine in Wonarah in northern Australia, that could eventually see a total investment of about A$1.5 billion (about 7,200 crore).

The decision of India's largest iron ore miner to sign a memorandum of understanding with Minemakers is part of its strategy to focus on food and energy security by acquiring phosphate and coal mines. Early this year, NMDC had signed an MoU with Nagarjuna Fertilisers for mining rock phosphate and potash.

"We will soon take up due diligence of the Wonarah phosphate deposit located in Australia's Northern Territory. While the property belongs to Minemakers, they have been looking for funding to develop it. We took it up since our strategy outlines food security as a focus area along with energy security," a senior NMDC official told ET.

As part of the MoU, NMDC and Minemakers, which is listed on the Australian Stock Exchange , will undertake a joint feasibility study into development of the Wonarah deposit. After completing the feasibility study, NMDC proposes to acquire 50% equity in the project and participate in the development of the project.

Incidentally, the Minemakers deal fell into NMDC's lap during a recent visit by the company's top officials to Australia to secure an iron ore property. Last month, NMDC struck a deal with Australian miner Legacy Iron Ore to buy a 50% stake.

While the Aussie deal may be more of a sudden development, NMDC's plan to enter fertiliser business is part of a well thought out plan to make the fullest use of its mining expertise to get into energy and food security. "Along with potential iron ore and coal assets, we are seriously on the look out for partners to enter the fertiliser business through a joint venture where our expertise would be in mining," a company official said.

However, with phosphate deposits very limited in India, barring a few in Rajasthan, NMDC has had to increasingly scout for opportunities abroad. Incidentally, India currently imports roughly around 2.5 million tonnes of phosphate every year. NMDC's partnership with the Nagarjuna group envisaged developing a phosphate mine in Africa. While Nagarjuna owned the asset, NMDC would lend its large scale mining experience to the project. On Monday, the NMDC scrip rose 0.13% to touch 263.15 on the BSE .

NMDC will arrange project finance for the full development of Wonarah, by way of debt finance and repay the costs already incurred on the project by Minemakers to date. This acquisition, subject to statutory approvals, will provide NMDC an entry in Australia's largest known undeveloped phosphate deposit and contribute towards securing supplies of phosphate for the domestic fertiliser industry"