Deacons advises on JV plan for Chinese steel maker
Deacons advised China’s Anshan Iron & Steel Group Corporation (Ansteel) in one of the first binding agreements between a Chinese steel maker and a listed Australian iron ore company.
Deacons advised China’s Anshan Iron & Steel Group Corporation (Ansteel) in one of the first binding agreements between a Chinese steel maker and a listed Australian iron ore company. Partner Ian McCubbin led the Deacons team, supported by senior associate James Hains, lawyer Georgette Leader in Melbourne, and Perth partners John Chandler and Liz Allnut.
The parties have committed to a $30 million feasibility study, and contingent on that, a joint venture into the $1 billion development of Gindalbie’s Karara iron ore pellet plant project in Western Australia. Ansteel will have a 50 per cent stake in the Karara project in return for providing all the debt funding and 75 per cent of the necessary equity funding. The steel maker will also have off-take rights to buy all the haematite iron ore Gindalbie produces in a separate project to start next year.
Other Australian iron ore companies, including Midwest Corp, Mt Gibson Iron and Cape Lambert Iron, have signed preliminary project development agreements with Chinese steel makers, but none have binding contracts.