Another nail in the Nickel coffin.
Gladstone Pacific Nickel Ltd - Proposed merger agreement lapsed
Gladstone Pacific Nickel Ltd (AIM: GPN) signed a Scheme Implementation Agreement
("SIA") with Resource Development International Ltd ("RDI") in August 2008 that envisaged
GPNL and RDI merging subject to the listing of RDI on the Hong Kong Stock
Exchange ("HKSE"). RDI is a company controlled by Mr Clive Palmer, the
previous chairman of GPNL and of which Mr Domenic Martino, a current director
of GPNL, is a director.
As announced on 15 December 2008, the Board of GPNL agreed to extend the
date for achievement of the listing of RDI on the HKSE to 31 March 2009. The
SIA has now lapsed and GPNL and RDI do not intend to extend the current merger
agreement beyond the 31 March 2009 deadline.
The Chairman of RDI, Mr Palmer, has advised GPNL that "the RDI Hong Kong
listing is on hold and is now expected to take place in the last half of
2009".
As announced on 30 January 2008, GPNL executed a Memorandum of
Understanding ("MOU") for the development of its Gladstone Nickel Project (the
"Project") with China Metallurgical Construction (Group) Corporation ("MCC").
GPNL continues to work actively with MCC, to progress the Gladstone Project,
independent of any potential plans with RDI.
Mr Palmer will continue to have the right, up to 8 December 2010, to earn
28,645,233 shares in GPNL (through the Company's arrangements with Dasines Pty
Ltd, a wholly owned company of Mr Palmer) upon achieving certain milestones,
being a legally binding turn key construction agreement and a financing
agreement for the Project.
The CEO John Downie stated that "although capital markets and commodity
prices are under pressure it is important that investors understand the strong
economics of the Project and the opportunities to reduce capital costs in this
new economic climate."
Gladstone Pacific Nickel Limited (GPNL) is an Australian mining
development company presently undertaking an Integrated Definitive Feasibility
Study (IDFS) for the Gladstone Nickel Project (GNP). The Company's vision is
to build a major long-life nickel cobalt refinery at the deepwater Port of
Gladstone, in Central Queensland, Australia, treating abundant high grade
nickel laterite ores from New Caledonia and other south-west Pacific islands,
underpinned by beneficiated ores from its own Marlborough deposits. The
Project has the potential to be one of the largest of its type in the world
producing some 126,000 tpa nickel (8 - 10% of global nickel demand) and 10,400
tpa of cobalt metal from its first two stages.
