News

March 17, 2008

The Chinese Gain A Strategic Stake In Altona Resources’ Huge Arckaringa Coal-To-Liquids Project

By Charles Wyatt

It’s quite difficult for investors to get their minds round Aim-traded Altona Resources. Here’s an Aim-traded company capitalised at less than £15 million - even after a recent funding – that’s working through pre-feasibility towards a bankable feasibility on the Arckaringa project in South Australia. Ackaringa contains more than 7.5 billion tonnes of coal deposits, making it one of the largest undeveloped energy banks in the world. It ought to be possible to convert this coal into clean liquid fuels to generate low cost power or high value industrial feedstocks, so the study is focussed on the development of an integrated 10 million barrel per year coal-to-liquid plant with a 560 MW co-generation power facility, which should be operating for the next 75 years.

Just stop for a moment and consider the task ahead of chairman Chris Lambert and his managing director Chris Schrape. Looked at from a practical point of view it might be thought impossible for such a tiny company to raise sufficient funding to advance this project much further without diluting existing shareholders out of existence or selling off the majority of the asset to a major. But these two chaps are determined to squeeze out maximum value, and they have the expertise to do it. Chris...