Wake up people29 Nov 2013 12:23
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Centurion Resources: Newsflow expected thick and fast as explorer bids to unlock value in Finland
By Ian Lyall November 22 2013, 11:51am The firm has invested 12mln euros to date that has helped identify three separate drill-ready targets in Finland: two copper with gold credits and the third targeting nickel, copper and platinum group metals
Very rarely does a mining exploration companycome to the market with a lot of the grunt work already done.
But in Centurion Resources (LON:CEN), soon to be FinnAust Mining, investors are being offered the opportunity to back just such a business.
The firm has invested 12mln euros to date that has helped identify three separate drill-ready targets in Finland: two copper with gold credits and the third targeting nickel, copper and platinum group metals.
Each is being selected for development because of its high grade potential, and each could, if some of the neighbouring projects provide a decent benchmark, prove transformational for the company and its backers.
In Aussie firm Western Areas, FinnAust has a strong cornerstone investor that has the expertise of developing assets of this ilk.
Western Areas is a dividend paying business with around A$100mln of free cash that is using quoted companies rather than wholly owned local subsidiaries to drive its exploration programme.
To do this, it is injecting a portfolio of assets formerly owned by the Finnish state mining company, Outokumpu, into London-listed shell Centurion via a reverse takeover.
AIM-listed Centurion is led by Alastair Clayton, a former director of Extract Resources, a big success story and listed on the ASX 100 until it and AIM-listed sister company Kalahari Minerals were sold for a combined £2.2bn in cash last year.
Once the transaction is complete, not only will the name change, but the group expects to appoint to the board Dan Lougher and Graham Marshall, respectively chief executive and general manager of Western Areas.
Clayton, who will remain with FinnAust as a director, believes the market may have initially misinterpreted the motives of Western Areas.
“I think people have seen through the original cynicism. They aren’t selling off the assets. The management are coming in; this is an entry not an exit,” explains Clayton.
The company has conditionally raised £3.4mln of new equity financing, with around £1.8mln being stumped up by Western Areas, giving it a 68% stake in the AIM-listed group.
The cash injection is enough to fund 10,300 metres of drilling across the three Finnish properties. There is a fourth asset, Mitterberg in Austria, which is part of the longer term plan.
Finland is the prime focus and there are a number of reasons for this, not least that it has a very settled political backdrop and a fairly generous fiscal regime.
The mineralisation of the region around the world-famous Outokumpu copper belt, host to the firm’s properties, is unique with the potentia
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