Gold Fields Take-over Bid For King Island

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31769, 28 August 1968, Page 20

Gold Fields Take-over Bid For King Island

(N.Z. Press Association~-Copyright)

MELBOURNE, August 27. Mining investor Consolidated Gold Fields Australia, Ltd, has made a bid worth almost $11.5m for a half-interest in King Island Scheelite (1947), Ltd.

The offer, in cash and shares, is for 50 per cent of each shareholding in K. 1.5., which has 2m $1 shares on issue.

If the bid succeeds C.F.G.A. and its subsidiaries will hold more than 51 per cent of K.I.S. capital. The offer is 11 ordinary shares in C.G.F.A. for each 10 stock units in King Island plus 100 c in cash for each stock unit.

Natural Gas For Oil Search A flow of natural gas has been reported from the Phillips Pasca No. 1 well in the Gulf of Papua. 160 miles north-west of Port Moresby and 60 miles south of the Papuan shoreline. The Oil Search-Phillips Australian Petroleum group announced today that a drill stem test at 7211 feet to 7245 feet was terminated because of mechanical difficulties before the flow could be measured.

The company said drilling and testing would continue

when repairs had been made. This is the eighth well drilled in the Gulf of Papua hy the Phillips group since October, 1967.

Barrier Mines Dispute

The New South Wales Industrial Commission has ordered mineworkers at the four Broken Hill mines to resume normal production. Mr Justice Alexander Beattie, president of the Commission, intervened late on Thursday afternoon in the three months old dispute.

He also ordered mine managers at the four mines to rescind a decision to close down the mines at midnight on Sunday and to provide work for the men as usual.

Management had threatened to close the mines unless normal production was resumed.

Judge Beattie, in a telegram to both sides in the dispute, said a Federal award was due to be brought down soon for members of the Federal Engine Drivers and Firemen’s Association. This could have some bearing on the Broken Hill dispute.

Competitor For A.C.1.?

Is Australia at last to have a second national manufac turer of bottles and othei glass containers, asks the fin ancial editor of the Sydnej “Morning Herald.” He says:—The answer may be known in three or four months. The American glass group whom the A.C.I. chair man has referred to at the annual meeting without naming is Ball Brothers Company, of Indiana.

Negotiations between the Australian sponsors and Bali Brothers are at an advanced stage but have not been final ised.

Public Listing

The initiative to develop a competitor for Australian Consolidated Industries in glass containers has come from this end.

Ball Brothers is still a pri vate family business. It has four plants in the United States and one in the Nether lands, and appears to command about 6 per cent of the United States glass container

market. It is a company of roughly A.C.l.’s size.

If the current negotiations are successful, the intention is to float a listed company, with the majority of the capita) held by the Australian public from the start Preliminary underwriting discussions have been held.