News

June 02, 2009

With Pallinghurst Now In The Driving Seat On Its Iron Ore Properties, Red Rock Is Now On The Lookout For New Opportunities

By Alastair Ford

“Red Rock has raised a bit of money because Red Rock has plenty to do”. So says company chairman Andrew Bell, who sounds in a sprightly and chatty mood when he rings up Minesite for a chat shortly after delivering £150,000 of new money into Red Rock’s coffers. The iron ore price may be on the wane, but that’s not dampening Andrew Bell’s spirits. He’s played a long game putting in place his company’s joint control of Jupiter Mines - in conjunction with mining supremo Brian Gilbertson’s Pallinghurst - down on the central Yilgarn district of Western Australia. And he doesn’t intend to let any of the views that Chinese and Japanese price negotiators have aired in conversation with Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton dampen his mood.

The iron ore weakness isn’t the best news for Jupiter, admittedly, but there’s been more at stake lately than just the pricing of the end product. The resolution of the issue of control of Jupiter has been warmly welcomed by investors, and the Australian markets have rewarded Jupiter shares with a 70 per cent mark up in recent weeks. That, says Andrew Bell, makes Red Rock’s 28 per cent stake in Jupiter worth a nice fat £7.5 million. A nice round number, made all the more remarkable by the...