NMDC mulls acquiring 100% stake in its Australian arm-legacy Iron

HYDERABAD: State-owned NMDC Limited is mulling owning 100 per cent stake in Australian arm Legacy iron by acquiring the remaining 24 per cent shares and delisting it from the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX), a senior official of the PSU has said.

Amitava Mukherjee, Director (Finance), NMDC, said the Indian iron ore miner currently holds 76 per cent in Legacy Iron Ore Limited,a Perth-based Australian exploration company focussed on development of iron ore, gold and base metal deposits.

Mukherjee also said they have plans to invest AUD 10 million (Australian Dollar) on Legacys gold project to take it up to the next level.

"We own a majority stake Legacy Iron in Australia.we have currently 76 per cent and are planning to hold 100 per cent in that company.

We want to buy another 24 per cent because that would give us the advantage of not listing in the Australian Stock Exchange," he said.

NMDC initially acquired about 50 per cent stake in ASX listed Legacy Iron Ore as cornerstone investor for nearly AUD19 million in 2011. Subsequently it increased the stake to 76 per cent. Legacy Iron Ore holds prospective iron ore tenements in both the central Yilgarn and Pilbara areas of Western Australia.

"But we do not know how to go about it (acquiring the remaining 24 per cent) so we asked people to advice us. De-listing would save us a lot of compliance cost. If it is legally permissible, we want to do and that is something we are exploring," he said.

Legacy is carrying out exploration in its 19 exploration tenements in Western Australia in Iron Ore, Gold and base metals.

Presently, it is concentrating in exploration of Gold in Mount Celia, where good occurrence of Gold has been observed, a company source had earlier said.

Mukherjee said the initial tests indicated that Legacy has tenements of iron ore of Magnetite quality which actually has more iron content than the mineral hematite.

While magnetite ore requires more treatment, end products made from magnetite ore are typically of higher quality than those made from hematite ore.

Thats because magnetite ore has fewer impurities than hematite ore, according to an industry expert. The NMDC official said further investments on iron ore would depend on the quality and quantity of ore available in the tenements held by the Australian subsidiary.