*Fyi, I see where our very own "Little Twig" who became a Mining "Rock Star" sees value in Africa, as
Fortescue JV signs exploration agreement for Belinga project in Gabon
Australia’s Fortescue Metals Group announced that its majority-owned joint venture, Ivindo Iron, has signed an exploration agreement with the Gabon Government for the Belinga iron ore project.
The agreement comprises key commercial and legal terms for the exploration of the Belinga project, allowing the grant of exploration licences to the JVfor a 4,500km² area.
Fortescue said the agreement also envisages a $90m exploration programme at the Belinga iron ore project, over a period of three years.
Fortescue Metals owns an 80% stake in Ivindo Iron while the remaining 20% is held by the Africa Transformation and Industrialisation Fund, an Africa-focused investment fund.
According to the Gabon Mining Code, the government will receive a 10% free carry interest in Ivindo Iron, upon the grant of the exploitation licences.
On securing the licences, Ivindo Iron will start exploration and studies on the project.
The exploration work will initially focus on determining the Belinga iron ore deposit’s potential size and grade, as well as assessing logistics solutions.
Fortescue CEO Elizabeth Gaines said: “Fortescue is committed to its strategic pillars of investing in the long-term sustainability of the iron ore business and investing in growth.
Consistent with this approach, Fortescue is pursuing global opportunities in iron ore that align with our strategy and expertise.
“We welcome the opportunity to assess the Belinga Project, which we believe is potentially one of the world’s largest undeveloped, high-grade hematite deposits.”
Located in north-eastern Gabon, the Belinga deposit was discovered in 1955 and was subject to exploration in the 1970s, which resulted in the identification of high iron and low contaminant mineralisation.
Gabon Minister of Mines Elvis Ossindji said: “Holding a priority position in our country’s transformation and economy diversification strategy, this project has witnessed an acceleration in order to create added value and hundreds of jobs in our country.
“The culmination of the Belinga iron project with the Australian mining company
Fortescue Metals Group and ATIF aims to strengthen the mining sector’s contribution to a thriving economy while making Gabon a benchmark mining destination.”
*To Remind,
Lessons from the Masters: Here’s how Twiggy Forrest spreads his investments
Andrew Forrest is the billionaire more than any other whose rapid ascent to the top of Australian society tells the story of the 2000s mining boom.
Chastened from the near collapse of Anaconda Nickel, Forrest reemerged in 2003 as the chairman and CEO at
Fortescue Metals Group, a penny stock founded on the relatively simple premise that China wanted more iron ore than Australian majors could export.
The former stockbroker and onetime alpaca farmer who grew up on Minderoo Station in WA’s north was proven right.
Despite the inferior grade of the ore mined from the vast swathes of WA’s Pilbara pegged by Fortescue, China’s economy and steel industry was in a rapid phase of growth.
Forrest, who has maintained a more than 36% slice and high degree of control over Fortescue for a number of years even after he initially stepped down as CEO in 2011, profited.
He spun his chunky dividend cheques into a range of investments, philanthropic gestures and political influence.
He now has a whiff of the ‘teal independents’ about him, a reflection of the wave of inner-city anger over climate change that turned long-time Liberal voters into haters in Saturday’s election.
Fresh off completing a PhD in Marine Ecology with the help of his own ocean research vessel — a little out of reach of his ramen-rich colleagues — Forrest reemerged as the main man at FMG by
denouncing himself as a carbon emitter and announcing plans to make the miner a global leader in clean energy.
The radical upheaval brought by the change in direction, formation of Fortescue Future Industries and resignation of FMG CEO Elizabeth Gaines have brought Forrest back into the fold as its executive chairman, a move announced last week.
Assessments of his wealth vary.
It last clocked in at a net worth of $27.25 billion on last year’s AFR rich list, $30.5 billion according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, and $27 billion according to Forbes.
One thing is for certain, Forrest’s wealth has skyrocketed in the two years since the pandemic began as iron ore prices hit record highs.
With China’s economy in slowdown mode and uncertainty around FMG’s dramatic move into ‘green hydrogen’, are there other Twiggy stock picks delivering more upside?
Where is Twiggy invested on the ASX?
Twiggy’s investments are dominated by his stake in Fortescue, now the third largest mining company on the ASX worth upwards of $63 billion at today’s price.
The fourth biggest iron ore exporter in the world
with record guidance of 185-188Mt of shipments in FY2022, it is one of the greatest stories of value creation in Australian business history.
Under the direction of CEO Nev Power from 2011-2018, the debt-saddled company rode out the storm of the mining downturn by rivalling and in some cases beating global supermajors
BHP and
Rio Tinto for unit costs, a position that helped Twiggy’s FMG thrive when benchmark prices hit records upwards of US$230/t last year.
It is not just Twiggy and his executives who did well out of the FMG deal.
The reclusive Kie Chie Wong, the Australian-based son of a Sarawak timber milling dynasty who made a $1m investment in Fortescue in 2003 (then worth over a quarter of the company), has also been reported as a billionaire from his minority stake.
On Monday we assessed the value of Forrest’s 36.5% stake, largely held through his family company Tattarang, at $23.2 billion, making up well over 95% of his listed portfolio wealth.
As with many billionaire investors, a vast amount of his wealth is held outside public markets, including the dividend cheques regularly delivered by FMG (tallying a dizzying $4 billion in FY2021), property, private mining and energy companies, agriculture, cattle stations, and the Harvey Beef and RM Williams businesses among other ventures.
But Forrest’s entry into a number of listed entities has sparked interest and excitement over the years.
The bulk of Forrest’s ASX investments sans FMG are now held in Tattarang, the rebranded investment arm of Minderoo split off and renamed to distinguish itself from Forrest’s philanthropic interests in the Minderoo Foundation.
Within that diverse set of investments is Wyloo Metals, Forrest’s private mining company.
Given his role establishing the Murrin Murrin nickel mine with Anaconda, Australia’s first nickel laterite operation, it is unsurprising Wyloo and Forrest have focused more attention on nickel than any other commodity.
Forrest’s reemergence in the nickel game came in 2007.
In a nod to his stockbroking past and embrace of Australiana he became the chairman and main shareholder of
Poseidon Nickel, aiming to revive the Windarra mine that was at the centre of the original Poseidon bubble in the 1960s — a seminal moment in Australian capital markets history for both good and bad reasons.
While Poseidon is finally getting close to resuming production not at Windarra but at the old Black Swan mine near Kalgoorlie, Forrest recently shaved his stake down to under 5%, leaving US private equity group Black Mountain Metals as the largest investor.
But Wyloo has emerged as one of the clans in Australian nickel’s Game of Thrones, amassing the largest stake in near-term Kambalda nickel producer
Mincor Resources and being kingmaker in
IGO’s successful takeover bid for
Western Areas.
Now that nickel is shifting from its traditional use in stainless steel to becoming a critical component of electric vehicles, expect the clean, green Forrest to take an even stronger interest.
That was demonstrated in his high stakes battle for control of Canada’s Noront Resources last year against BHP, now privately controlled by Wyloo, when BHP was unable to match Wyloo and Forrest’s final offer of C$1.10 a share, a massive 47% above BHP’s C75c bid.
Wyloo will spend C$25 million delivering feasibility studies to investigate the development of Noront’s assets in Canada’s remote Ring of Fire nickel district.
In the energy space Forrest is traversing with Fortescue Future Industries, and has shifted his onshore gas explorer Squadron Energy into the green energy field.
Through Squadron, Forrest is a major investor in the multi-billion dollar Sun Cable project alongside Mike Cannon-Brookes.
Squadron was the joint leader of a $210 million Series B raise in March for the project, which is aiming to take solar energy generated in the NT and transport it via a high voltage direct current cable to Darwin and Singapore.
Forrest was first revealed as a substantial investor in Mincor in late 2019, amid a series of fundraising rounds the company launched to back the restart of its Kambalda nickel operations.
According to ASX filings Forrest began amassing his stake in August 2019, when MCR was worth around 55c.
While he added to his position subsequently, the iron ore magnate would be well in the money, with a surge in nickel prices, the growth of the EV market and MCR’s successful restart of mining propelled the $1.17 billion company to a $2.43 share price as of this week.
RBC reckons it could run further, with ore now going through BHP’s Kambalda concentrator and cash flows expected this quarter.
The investment bank has a $2.75 price target on the WA nickel miner.
If it's true, Like they say, about "Trees & Shade " and that also from "Little Things Big Things Grow"
Then what happens when the "Little Thing" is a Monster of Biblical Proportions to start with
AVZ / Manono has the potential to be the Biggest Tree on the Block for Decades to come atm
Food for thought on "Sitting in the Shade" relaxing with your feet up in retirement one day
Would Nigel like to be sitting in the shade under a Tree in the DRC, you bet your arse he would
AVZ the next FMG / BHP
Tim will tell
Cheers
Frank
Thank you. 
It’s been painful the last few years but I think it’s actually sorting it self out, I’ve been waiting on this ML since ahhh shit I forgot l, back to work for you for a little bit but not long & I wish you the best.
, for those that don’t know it’s a thing 
