Camec Doubles Stake in CRC

By Charlotte Mathews
06 May 2008 at 08:56 AM GMT-04:00

JOHANNESBURG (Business Day) -- Copper miner Central African Mining & Exploration Company (Camec) [AIM:CFM] has doubled its stake in Metorex-controlled Copper Resources Corporation [AIM:CRC] at a price 60% above what Metorex [JSE:MEMTX] paid for a similar stake.

Camec and Metorex are now the biggest shareholders in CRC, with 97.5%. The rest is held by the public.

Camec, the controversial company controlled by former England cricketer Phil Edmonds, said two weeks ago it had acquired 21% of CRC. Last Friday Camec said it had raised the stake to 47.2%. Two days earlier, Metorex said it had raised its own stake in CRC to 50.3% from 45.3%.

Metorex also has an option to acquire another 5% in CRC's underlying assets. Camec said it paid 200 pence a share for its additional CRC shares in a combination of cash and Camec shares. This compares with the 125,1p a share in cash that Metorex offered to all CRC shareholders in December.

CRC owns three high-grade copper deposits in the Democratic Republic of Congo and a project in the Philippines. The Congo deposits have an estimated resource of 5.3 billion pounds of copper, but two of the three properties are flooded and the third is an exploration project.

Camec's intentions are unclear, though CEO Andrew Groves said two weeks ago its stake in CRC would be "strategic".

Metorex CE Charles Needham said Camec's purchase of more shares had not altered Metorex's plans for CRC. Metorex sat on CRC's board, managed operations and was developing projects.