News

May 28, 2009

Tripartite Merger Imminent Between Rusina Mining, Toledo Mining and European Nickel

By Charles Wyatt

You learn more about a company when it decides that it can no longer afford £3,000/year to subscribe to Minesite than at any other time. Either it is on its beam ends as far as money is concerned and can no longer afford to keep a promotional programme in being, or it is indulging in a bit of self pity and thinks investors will take no notice of it ever again, or it is contemplating a deal in a short time frame which will take the decision out of its hands. In the case of AIM and ASX listed Rusina Mining, it looks like the latter, as in the last quarterly report the company still had A$4.4 million in the till and managing director Rob Gregory is certainly not a man for self pity. The next thing to be done is to ring the company and see what information on the deal can be extracted. The way Rob ducks and dives on the other end of the telephone in the Philippines is a sure indication that a deal is on the way as he is usually very straightforward.

Not that hard to surmise what this deal could be. In 2007 AIM listed European Nickel formed a joint venture with Rusina Mining on the Acoje deposit by investing £1 million in Rusina shares and options. It also agreed to earn up to a 40 per cent interest in the nickel laterite portion of Acoje by spending US$10 million on a heap leach trial and feasibility. This meant that Rusina was diluted to 40 per cent as its local Philippine partner DMCI Holdings hung onto the balance. The Acoje deposit on...