Mark Creasy’s CZR Resources cuts deal with a Chinese company for sale of iron ore project
Mark Creasy continues to play kingmaker in WA’s gold and lithium industries, cutting an iron ore deal through CZR Resources with a Chinese company.
Mark Creasy-backed CZR Resources has cut a $102m deal to sell its Pilbara iron ore project to a Chinese investment company, with the legendary WA prospector also considering the sale of his stake in the project.
CZR entered a trading halt ahead of the sale on December 28 as it negotiated terms for the deal, with China’s Xinjiang Jiangna Mining Corporation emerging this week as the ultimate buyer of the small iron ore project.
The company’s Robe Mesa project is effectively an extension of Rio Tinto’s Mesa F deposit and contains a mining reserve of only 33.4 million tonnes of low grade ore.
CZR owns 85 per cent of the project, with Mr Creasy’s private mining group owning the remaining stake.
CZR said on Thursday the deposit will be sold to Australian-registered company Miracle Iron ore Resources — whose ultimate parent is Xinjiang Jiangna Mining Corporation (XJMC).
The deal will require approval by the Foreign Investment Review Board, and CZR said on Thursday it has conducted due diligence investigations on Miracle and its parent companies and is “satisfied of Miracle Iron’s financial capacity to perform its obligations under the transaction”.
CZR also has a port infrastructure deal with Strike Resources for the establishment of an export path for the iron ore deposits held by both companies, and Strike last week announced a deal to sell its own iron ore tenements to what appears to be a sister company of Miracle.
Records filed with the corporate regulator show Miracle Iron Resources was registered in October 2023. XJMC only became a shareholder in Miracle in mid-December, through subsidiary Shenzhen Naaojianglan Investment.
Miracle was registered by Perth-based businessman Frank Yin, formerly the chief executive of ASX-listed iShine International Resources.
ASIC records also show Mr Yin holds all of the shares in Miracle Iron Holdings, the company which last week agreed to pay Strike $20.5m for its Paulsens East iron ore deposit, which will use the same export path as Robe Mesa.
CZR said in a statement to the ASX the company will be paid $81.6m on completion of the deal, and another $20.4m by June 30, 2025, or earlier if a shipment of iron ore is sent from the Robe Mesa project.
The deal will also need to be approved by CZR’s minority shareholders, with Mr Creasy likely prevented from voting his 55 per cent stake in the company on the deal as he is in separate negotiations with Miracle over the sale of his own stake.
CZR has previously tipped a 5 million a tonne export operation from the project, which it has said is fully permitted and has an export route through a future transshipping operation at Ashburton in a joint venture with Strike and shipping and logistics major CSL, not far from the new iron ore port planned by Mineral Resources.
The company said it has been paid a $1m exclusivity fee by Miracle, with the company bound to “no shop, no talk” provisions as part of the payment.
CZR said the $102m total fee is the equivalent of about 43c per share.
Following the sale of Robe Mesa, the company will be left with a prospective gold project near De Grey Mining’s Hemi gold discovery in the Pilbara.
At 2pm Thursday, CZR shares had jumped 13c to 31c, a spike of 45.2 per cent, on the company’s return to trading.
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