Ferrex goes for Aussie gold

Unloved West African manganese play Ferrex (FRX) is to pay up to £930,000 in shares to buy into gold production in Western Australia. The company intends to follow that with another ‘higher value’ deal before the end of the year. The UK-based company, whose shares have fallen from a 2011 AIM float price of 3p to 0.45p now, is to buy Chaffers Mining, a private gold mining concern which has a five-year agreement to mine the yellow metal at Paddington in the West Australian goldfields for Norton Goldfields, part of Zijin Mining, China’s largest gold producer.

Ferrex (#FRX) - Acquisition of Australian gold mining company. Attempt to diversify

Ferrex prepares for Togo finance deal

Unfavoured manganese hopeful Ferrex (FRX) is expected to announce a resource upgrade by May for its Nayega project in the West African republic of Togo, having concluded agreement with the authorities on a 150-page mining convention to permit the 250,000 tonne-a-year project to go ahead -- provided finance is forthcoming. Company watchers believe an imminent definitive feasibility study will suggest costs could be significantly less than the $14.5 million previously estimated to tap Nayega’s resources, hitherto reckoned at 11 million tonnes with 13.9% manganese, and suggest a full exploitation permit, the final hurdle, is likely soon after Togo’s presidential election next month.

Ferrex seeks new backers

Dave Reeves, managing director of manganese and iron ore hopeful Ferrex (FRX), says he is looking for ‘cornerstone investors’. He wants them to back the AIM-quoted company’s plan for a ‘low-cost’ manganese mine in the West African republic of Togo and a smelter to produce a high-carbon ferromanganese alloy from this and other material.

What next for Ferrex?

Last Wednesday, Ferrex (FRX), delivered for its shareholders some most unwelcome news, as it announced that Anglo American and Kumba Iron Ore had decided not to proceed with their proposed funding of the Mebaga Iron Ore Project, based in Gabon. Unsurprisingly the company’s share price fell c.40% in response, but it has since recovered from a low close of 1.025p to trade at 1.32p, last seen. This values the business at £12.3million and the question now is can the company shake off last week’s disappointment and demonstrate the value of its portfolio, which Managing Director Dave Reeves believes the market has largely missed?

Ferrex poised for Anglo iron deal but still a punt

Dave Reeves, managing director and significant shareholder of West African iron and manganese play Ferrex (FRX), is toasting encouraging mapping results from the company’s 82 per cent-owned iron ore project at Mebaga in northern Gabon. Key elements in the company’s growth and development strategy are also coming together and in Togo and South Africa. If successful, these could transform AIM-quoted Ferrex, whose shares at 2p have doubled since last summer but remain below their 2.6p 52-week high and 3p float price of 2011.