News

June 24, 2009

Apollo Minerals Is In Discussions About The Future Of The Mount Oscar Iron Ore Project With Several Potential Partners From China

By Charles Wyatt

It was a pity that Richard Sealy, chief operating officer of Apollo Minerals, could not give the presentation at our last Minesite Forum, but Roderick Smith, Mining Consultant now living in London, did a good job on his behalf. The fact was that Chinese had shown so much interest in Apollo’s magnetite tenements up in the Pilbara region of Western Australia that Richard had stayed on an extra week in Shanghai. One reason for this high level of interest was the huge potential of the project. But another was that he had made meticulous preparations before he went. His documentation was in Mandarin as well as English and he had found a translator who was at ease with technical phrases. The Chinese appreciated the attention to detail and Richard, for his part, appreciated the amount of homework they had put in ahead of meetings. A mutual appreciation society, you might say, but also an ideal background against which to negotiate some sort of partnership deal, which is what Richard was seeking.

Small wonder the Chinese want to participate as Shanghai is now being virtually re-built, on the same lines as was Beijing for the Olympics last year. Shanghai has to be ready for Expo 2010 when about 70 million visitors are expected, and the theme is “Better City: Better Life” which is designed to highlight the potential for better living in future urban environments. At the same time Rapid Rail is under pressure to carry passengers to every part of China by 2015 so that means thousands of...