Mincor Resources announces share buy-back

THE BOURSE WHISPERER: Australian nickel producer Mincor Resources has flagged its intention to undertake an on‐market buy‐back of up to 20,018,000 of its shares.

This effectively amounts to being approximately 10 per cent of the company’s share capital.

The company said the share buy‐back provides an effective mechanism for it to return excess cash to shareholders.

The company’s directors chose this time as they consider the price of Mincor’s shares reflects neither its current value nor its future prospects.

Following the buy‐back Mincor will be fully funded for its exploration and development programs across its suite of growth assets, which include exploration opportunities in the Kambalda nickel district and elsewhere in Australia.

The company has also recently acquired world‐class copper‐gold exploration joint venture assets in Papua New Guinea.

Mincor Resources managing director David Moore said the company was confident that the recently announced restructuring of its Kambalda nickel operations would, following a challenging financial year 2011, see a strong operational performance from the beginning of the new financial year.

“While we have plenty of growth opportunities to spend our money on – including our recent PNG joint ventures – it is hard to see a better investment right now than Mincor’s own shares,” Moore said.

“The buy‐back allows us to make this investment while in the same process returning excess cash to shareholders.

“We will retain the cash we need to pursue our growth ambitions, and we see our nickel mines turning around strongly from early in the new financial year.

“We are already experiencing the predicted lift in grade at Mariners and the operational re‐structuring will resolve Miitel’s issues and, of course, our McMahon mine will enter production later in the year.”

After a notice period of 14 days the buy‐back is expected to commence on 5 July 2011 and continue for up to 12 months.