Still in the resource sector, something is up at iron ore miner, Atlas Iron.
There was a story around on the newswires about a possible play for a stake in a mine from foreign interests, and then the company asked for its shares to be suspended until tomorrow.
Atlas said it asked for the trading halt "pending a potential material announcement" by the company.
The halt came two months after Atlas told Reuters that it was in talks to find a partner to help it develop its Ridley magnetite deposit in Western Australia.
Shares in Atlas last traded up 4.3% at $2.21 a share before the halt.
Earlier the Economic Times of India reported that NMDC, which is India’s biggest iron ore miner, had linked with a company called ABS Consulting of Saudi Arabia and Boulder Steel Ltd. to make a bid for a stake in an Australian iron-ore project owned by Atlas Iron Ltd.
A non-binding offer has been pitched to Atlas Iron for a 70% stake in the project, which wasn’t named, but is thought to be the Ridley deposit.
Atlas has put a value of $3 billion on the Ridley project and newsagencies yesterday said it had secured interest from possible buyers in China, India, South Korea and Japan.
The Economic Times also suggested that a Chinese buyer might be interested.
According to the Economic Times report, NMDC would take a 15% stake, while Boulder Steel would have 5% and ABS Consulting 55%.
ABS, or Arabia for Business Strategy LLC, is a company owned by a member of the Saudi royal family. It linked with Boulder Steel last year to jointly buy resources for iron and steel making in Australia.
