CIL may extend CBM tender deadline

Wednesday, 17 Aug 2011

BL reported that Coal India Ltd may extend the August 17 deadline for receiving bids for extraction and commercial utilization of coal bed methane from five mining assets.

According to sources, a turf battle between the key union ministries of coal and, petroleum and natural gas has already forced the company to extend the tender deadline, twice, from June.

The tender was slated to pave way for extraction of nearly 25 billion cubic metres of CBM and ensure safe underground mining of over 100 million tonnes of medium-grade coking coal in Jharkhand. High concentration of gas has made underground mining unsafe in the identified assets.

According to sources, while the coal ministry has extended its tacit approval to CIL on the issue, the company was yet to receive any formal clarification on closure of the tender and awarding the same as per schedule.

According to the tender, issued in April, CIL invited private players to invest in extraction of gas and sell the same in the open market to ensure returns. CIL was slated to get a share of the profit from sale of gas.

The ministry of petroleum and natural gas felt that the tender was overlapping in nature with CBM Policy and, should not be awarded without the requisite approval from the upstream regulator. The coal ministry was also urged to take cabinet approval on the issue.

The coal ministry, however, felt that the ambit of the CBM Policy does not include the CIL leasehold area. Also, according to the Mining Act there was no space for a second licensee in a particular mining leasehold area. It is understood that the coal ministry was yet to submit any proposal for cabinet committee's consideration in this regard.

(Sourced from BL)

OSC declines to comment on request by Baffinland Iron Mine

Sunday, 23 Jan 2011
Bloomberg reported that Ontario's securities regulator declined to comment on a request by a former Baffinland Iron Mines Corporation executive seeking to temporarily block an ArcelorMittal led takeover before a January 24th 2011 deadline.
In a letter to the Ontario Securities Commission, Mr Gord McCreary former CEO said that Baffinland shareholders haven't been provided with enough information about the proposed CAD 590 million joint offer from ArcelorMittal and Nunavut Iron Ore Acquisition Inc. The OSC should investigate whether to stop trading in Baffinland shares tendered to the offer.
Mr McCreary said that "It would appear that the offeror have come to an agreement for the sole purpose of purchasing the securities of Baffinland without further price escalation, thereby denying the non related security holders of Baffinland of a fundamental benefit of the competitive bid process."
Ms Carolyn Shaw Rimmington, an OSC spokeswoman, said that it's the commission's policy not to comment on any correspondence it may have received.
ArcelorMittal and Nunavut, backed by Houston based private equity firm Energy & Minerals Group, had been in a bidding war for Baffinland when on January 14th 2011 they said they were combining forces to make a CAD 1.50 per share bid for Baffinland. Under the terms of the offer, ArcelorMittal would end up controlling 70% of Baffinland and Nunavut the rest.
Mr Tom Johnson, a New York based ArcelorMittal spokesman, said that "Our bid is in best interests of all shareholders. Nunavut is receiving no special treatment here and will be responsible for bearing its pro rata share of the purchase price and all costs associated with the joint offer, and the development of the Mary River Project."

Mr Bruce Walter chairman of Nunavut said that "We are confident that our offer complies with all applicable laws and that it will be proceeding on schedule."
Baffinland said this week that it recommended shareholders accept the joint takeover offer.
Mr Richard McCloskey CEO of Baffinland said that "We supported the bid. It's up to the shareholders to decide."
Mr McCreary said in a telephone interview that he's negotiating with two Chinese companies that may be interested in making a competing bid for Baffinland, which is developing the Mary River project in the Canadian Arctic.
The value of the joint offer from ArcelorMittal and Nunavut was calculated using the 393.39 million outstanding Baffinland shares cited in a January 10th 2011 Nunavut statement.(Sourced from bloomberg)