Advertisement
UK markets open in 2 hours 34 minutes

  • NIKKEI 225

    37,709.11
    -750.97 (-1.95%)
     

  • HANG SENG

    17,295.93
    +94.66 (+0.55%)
     

  • CRUDE OIL

    82.87
    +0.06 (+0.07%)
     

  • GOLD FUTURES

    2,325.50
    -12.90 (-0.55%)
     

  • DOW

    38,460.92
    -42.77 (-0.11%)
     

  • Bitcoin GBP

    51,449.27
    -2,101.11 (-3.92%)
     

  • CMC Crypto 200

    1,387.15
    -36.95 (-2.59%)
     

  • NASDAQ Composite

    15,712.75
    +16.11 (+0.10%)
     

  • UK FTSE All Share

    4,374.06
    -4.69 (-0.11%)
     
Money:

The five essential pieces of financial paperwork you must never lose

Mislaying key documents can cause real headaches, so it’s worth tracking down these most commonly-lost bits of paperwork

African Minerals chairman looks to buy London Mining's Marampa mine

Reuters - UK Focus

(Corrects headline and paragraph 1 to say Timis is chairman of African Minerals, not CEO)

Oct 22 (Reuters) - African Minerals Ltd's Chairman Frank Timis is looking to buy failed West African miner London Mining's iron ore mine in Sierra Leone from administration through his private company.

Timis, through the Timis Mining Corporation, has finalised a $20 million funding agreement with Australia's Cape Lambert Resources Ltd to help him acquire the Marampa mine.

A spokesman for Timis Mining confirmed that the company was interested in acquiring the Marampa mine, but he did not give any further details. A spokesman for London Mining (Other OTC: LIIGF - news) declined immediate comment.

ADVERTISEMENT

Investec (LSE: INVP.L - news) analysts said African Minerals seemed to be the natural acquirer for the Marampa mine, given its significant infrastructure in the region.

"... It is interesting that it is Timis' private company purportedly doing the bidding, perhaps because it can more readily realise the funding to make the offer," they wrote in a note to clients.

African Minerals, like London Mining, has been battered by a 40 percent drop in the iron ore price and disruptions in the region due to the Ebola epidemic.

African Minerals said last month that it was open to selling a minority stake in its only mine as part of a financial rescue.

London Mining slipped into administration last week after it ran out of funds and failed to secure a buyer for the company, but said that it would work with PricewaterhouseCoopers, its administrator, to ensure that a buyer was found for Marampa.

The Marampa mine employs around 1,300 people and has iron ore reserves sufficient for 40 years of mining. The mine lies about 120 km from African Minerals' Tonkolili mine.

Shares (Berlin: DI6.BE - news) in African Minerals rose as much as 9.6 percent on the London Stock Exchange (Other OTC: LDNXF - news) on Wednesday. The stock was up 1.4 percent at 1921 pence at 1133 GMT. (Reporting by Roshni Menon in Bangalore; Editing by Kirti Pandey)