Chinese toll road operator Wah Nam International Holdings Ltd. said on February 13, 2008 that it planned to buy a 90% stake in a copper mine in Yunnan Province in Southwestern China for HKD 650 million.

The target mine covers a mining area of approximately 3.67 square kilometers and is preliminarily estimated to have reserves of 256,000 tons of copper, 273,000 tons of lead, 66,000 tons of zinc, 1.019 million tons of arsenic, and 42,000 tons of other minerals. It is processing 1,300 tons of ores a day now.

Wah Nam will take over Smart Year Investment Ltd., which holds 90% of Lvchunxingtai Mining Co., Ltd., a company licensed to explore and exploit the aforesaid mine. As of 2007-end, Smart Year had total assets of CNY 22.35 million and suffered losses for consecutive two years.

The buyer will pay HKD 140 million in cash, HKD 103.5 million in 345 million shares to be sold at HKD 0.3 apiece, and HKD 406.5 million in warrants with initial exercise price of HKD 0.3 per share. – SinoCast