| Astron Ltd, in the business of selling
zircon to the Chinese, is looking to get bigger.
Easily confused with Astron
Resources, a small explorer that lent several million to a Malaysian
property group hoping to list on the ASX in the early '90s only to
drift off the radar soon after, Astron Ltd chief executive Alex Brown
recently announced a one-for-one $6.4 million rights issue to
generate some working capital.
Brown is not shy when it comes to talking up Astron's potential, saying in the
prospectus: ``In China, Astron is
extremely well known and has been recognised by the Chinese
Government as one of China's top foreign enterprises.
``Throughout the world, most industrial companies know Astron as a leading advanced material
manufacturer.
``In Australia, Astron is
listed on the Australian Stock Exchange and has over many years
outperformed most other companies in the chemical sector for sales
and profit growth.
``Astron is also possibly one
of Australia's most successful companies operating inside China, a
country whose market is notorious for aggressive local competition
and difficulties for foreign enterprises."
Stirring stuff, but to be fair, most shareholders would be
pleased with a 16 per cent return for the past year, which is what
Astron has delivered.
As far as Brown is concerned, future growth is likely to stem
from sales, sales and more sales. Astron has three factories in the
world's most populous nation.
Zircon is used in the casting, refractory, optical, electrical,
paper and chemical industries. It ends up in all sorts of things,
including ceramics, TV tubes and glass.
There's life after Yandal
Colossal gold producer Newmont has spent some of its time this
week cleaning up Yandal, an unpleasant legacy of last year's
takeover of Robert Champion de Crespigny's Normandy Mining.
Elsewhere, life goes on. In Adelaide, for example. Newmont's
Australian operations plan to back Keith Yates's Adelaide Resources
in its gold exploration project in the Gawler Craton in South
Australia.
Newmont's investment means it will earn a 51 per cent interest in
Adelaide's 5684 square kilometres of tenements on the Eyre Peninsula
at the cost of at least $1 million a year for five years on
exploration.
In what is not a bad effort for the SA junior explorer, Newmont
will also take a 4.65 per cent stake in Adelaide for a $400,000
placement of 2.67 million shares at 15c each, a 20 per cent premium
to the recent market price.
Yates portrays the deal as a ``vote of confidence", saying
Newmont now has an ``option" in Adelaide Resources, which started at
Eyre Peninsula in 1996 and first found gold a year later.
Newmont will fund the drilling of hundreds of exploration holes
and take a 51 per cent interest in Adelaide Resources' peninsula
tenements.
Intersuisse likes Bolnisi
Broking house Intersuisse also has a Matrix.
This one tracks junior resources companies. One of the lesser
known companies that has caught its eye is Bolnisi Gold.
Bolnisi operates in the former Soviet state of Georgia it is
named after a region in the country where Intersuisse reckons it has
established ``consistent and profitable" production from its
low-tech mining facility.
While dividends are being paid, the company is looking at copper
and silver opportunities in Australia and Mexico.
Bolnisi has a 50 per cent stake in the open pit Quartzite gold
project, which began producing in 1997.
Its gold is shipped to Johnson Matthey in the UK for refining and
sale.
In the March quarter, the project produced 19,111 ounces of gold
and 5550 ounces of silver at a low cash operating cost of $US138 an
ounce.
As Intersuisse points out, this cost base is not far above some
of its higher-profile sector peers, such as Kingsgate Consolidated
and Oxiana Resources.
In the March quarter, the company also paid a maiden interim
dividend of 0.75c per share (unfranked), reflecting a solid cash
position.
Bolnisi is also looking at the Roseby Copper project near Mt Isa.
It covers 1000 square kilometres and comprises two joint ventures
with fellow junior Universal Resources.
A bankable feasibility study is scheduled for completion by the
end of the year.
The company hopes to develop a open-pit copper development that
could yield annual production of 25,000 tonnes of copper concentrate
over eight years.
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