Perth-based iron ore and gold exploration company Legacy Iron Ore is mulling over spinning off its gold assets as part of a strategic review designed to maximise value from its non-core assets.
In a filing to the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) on Tuesday September 25, Legacy said that it did not believe the value of its prospective gold projects was being reflected in its share price and that the most likely outcome of the review would be the spinning off of its gold assets into a separate ASX-listed company.
“With a strong gold price, (Legacy) believes that this approach will deliver the best outcome for shareholders and allow Legacy Iron to focus on the development of its cornerstone asset, the Mt Bevan iron ore project,” its md Sharon Heng said in the statement.
Legacy is developing the Mt Bevan iron ore project, which has a JORC resource of 617 million tonnes of 31.2% Fe iron ore, as part of a joint venture with fellow Australian exploration company Hawthorn Resources.
Legacy said that the move would be in line with its strategy of acquiring and developing resource projects for supplying steel-feed materials.
The exploration company added two coking coal projects in Queensland, Australia, to its portfolio in August.
The two tenements, near the townships of Mundubbera and Eidsvold, have exploration targets of 130-580 million tonnes of thermal coal as well as semi-soft coking coal potential.
Legacy is 50% owned by NMDC, India’s largest iron ore producer, which bought its stake in the exploration company in December 2011.
Michelle Madsen
mmadsen@steelfirst.com
Twitter: @mmadsen_mb
