It is reported that Pangang Group Steel Vanadium & Titanium will inject AUD 370 million into the Karara iron ore mine through its subsidiaries. PSV plans to inject capital into Karara through Ansteel Group Hong Kong Holdings and Ansteel Group Australian Corporation.
Ansteel Group Australian Corporation and Gindalbie Metals an Australian company held 50% stakes in the Karara project respectively. In light of the mine expansion, Ansteel Group Australian Corporation and Gindalbie Metals plan to inject a total of AUD 600 million into Karara Iron Ore. Of that total, Ansteel Group Australian Corporation will spend AUD 300 million.
In addition, Gindalbie Metals plans to raise 209 million by a placement to invest in the construction of the Karara iron ore program. Ansteel Group Hong Kong Holdings held 33.58 million shares of Gindalbie Metals and it had to spend about AUD 75 million to buy shares in the placement.
PSV stressed that the Karara mine is in a trial operation phase at the moment. Hematite output is expected to reach 400,000 tonnes by next January and two million tons by the end of 2012.
Rising raw material and labor costs have lifted Karara overall construction costs to AUD 2.57 billion markedly higher than prior cost estimates