Theo, Evangelising For Victoria, Averts His Gaze As Skimpy Rumours Abound

The Age

Tuesday August 9, 2005

BARRY FITZGERALD

THE rumours and share tips have been flying thick and fast at the Diggers & Dealers bash, as you'd expect when 1400 mining types, brokers, financiers and hangers-on squeeze into a place like Kalgoorlie.

Most mentioned was a bid from Michael Kiernan's Consolidated Minerals for Chris Bonwick's nickel miner, Independence Group. The two men have definitely been talking to each other in and around the conference venue.

But everyone has. That's what people do at conferences. Little credence is given to the takeover rumour, although there was no complaining from Independence shareholders yesterday, with Independence moving higher.

One of the more interesting tips was the one involving the South African gold group Harmony having a go at John Quinn's Perseverance, owner of the newly developed Fosterville goldmine near Bendigo.

The word was that Harmony has decided it needs to bulk up its Australian operating base, and that if didn't bid for Perseverance it would seek a joint venture deal on Fosterville.

Quinn was looking nice and relaxed in Perseverance's promotional booth at the conference, and when asked about the rumour, he said it was news to him. He also made the point that such a move by Harmony might be a bit strange given that another South African mob, Gold Fields, had provided the processing technology at Fosterville.

On a separate issue, the word is that Gold Fields is close to lifting the lid on a gold discovery in the Bendigo area that may boost the local exploration sector.

IN A first for the D & D bash, Victoria's Minister for Energy Industries and Resources, Theo Theophanous, has been busy mingling, promoting his state's gold potential. He didn't mention the Gold Fields discovery but reckoned Victoria was on its way to becoming a 500,000 ounce-a-year gold producer in quick fashion, with the potential to get to 1 million ounces. New developments at Ballarat and Bendigo will underpin the industry's renaissance.

Historically, Victoria has produced some 2 per cent of all the gold ever produced and the minister sees no reason why it can't become a major producer again. And what's the chance of Victoria getting on board the uranium exploration boom? None, thanks to a lack of prospectivity for the stuff.

Like most of the delegates, the minister has been taking in some sights, including a fleeting visit on Sunday night to the Exchange Hotel, home to some hard-working "Skimpies". Theophanous said his eyes were kept fixed firmly on the floorboards.

NOT seen at the boozer, not yet anyway, is seasoned miner and former Titan Resources chief Bill Ryan.

He has been too busy spreading the word about his new $8 million float, Vital Metals. It's a tungsten explorer that has picked up a highly rated project in Queensland that has been hidden away for years inside BHP Billiton.

A prospectus is expected to be released in a week or so and Kiernan's Consolidated Minerals has put its hand up for $1 million worth of the shares, continuing its liking for anything to do with steel. The investment continues a relationship that started when Kiernan was Titan chairman for a time.

KALGOORLIE airport was again home to Robert Friedland's private jet while the stock promoter extraordinaire delivered an update on progress at the monster Oyu Tolgoi copper/gold project in Mongolia by his Ivanhoe Mines.

Friedland again gave the delegates a bit of a rush on his super-bullish outlook for metal demands and prices because of the China boom, saying a couple of billion people there deserved to get everything we had. "And they will get it," he said.

Mongolia is hotting up as a result of Ivanhoe's success, with Rio Tinto the latest entrant through a placement it took up in a junior Canadian company that holds a big ground position near Oyu Tolgoi.

Australian interest is also picking up. BHP Billiton is back there exploring while, at the other end of the scale, an unlisted Sydney explorer, Xanadu Mines, is active on the ground after raising some seed capital before a likely float.

KIM Robinson's Kagara Zinc showed the rest of the junior miners at the D & D bash that yes, it is possible to make decent money from being a zinc producer.

Robinson reported that Kagara's annual profit had increased fourfold to a record $14.4 million. There is more to come, too, as the result was all from the group's Mt Garnet operation in Queensland, with a copper circuit being added to the treatment plant to add about 10,000 tonnes of copper to the production profile.