Commercial VAM SELLS MINING VENTURES

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32360, 28 July 1970, Page 20

Commercial VAM SELLS MINING VENTURES

In a brief joint statement Vam, Ltd, revealed that it has sold interests in three mining ventures to McDonald Industries, ttd, the Sydney Morning Herald” reports.

The sale price is not disclosed. The Vam group is reported to owe money to the McDonald group, and the deal may involve some adjustment of debts. Depending on the price it has paid for the Vam mineral interests, the character of McDonald Industries may have been materially changed by this transaction, without full information being supplied to its shareholders. The Vam group has been hard pressed for finance to develop some of its projects, and in the absence of more information this fact might be taken as a primary reason for the deal with McDonald Industries.

ductlon in each of the three operations. The deals with McDonald follow Vam’s sale of its 60 per cent interest in Gllndemann and Kitching (Holdings) Pty, Ltd, to Reserves and Mining Investments, Ltd, for an undisclosed cash sum (Vam has also sold its own interest in Reserves and Mining). The purpose of these sales was to. relieve a period of “financial stringency'’ tn the group, which directors. attributed to tighter money conditions. the article says.

• The statement says that Me- ■ Donald has acquired, in the : first place, a 50 per cent inI terest in a joint venture with 1 New England Antimony Mines, N.L, [ This involves mining and 1 concentrating antimony near ’ Fishington and Hillgrove in ■ the Armidale district. i New England Antimony is , a wholly owned Vam subsidiary. It has sold forward about 2 million long ton units of antimony concentrates, to be delivered through 1970 to 1973. Secondly, McDonald has acquired a 51 per cent Interest in a joint venture with West Australian Gold Development N.L., mining gold near Bullfinch in Western Australia. The third interest sold to McDonald is 25 per cent of a joint venture with Surveys and Mining, Ltd, mining and concentrating copper at and around Gunpowder Creek in northern Queensland. These interests have been taken through McDonald Con- 1 structions Pty, Ltd, a whollyowned subsidiary of McDonald Industries. Another McDonald tubal- < diary, McDonald Mining and < Engineering Pty, Ltd, has ’ been awarded contracts to manage the mining and pro- 1