ASX QUESTIONS COAST MINING COMPANIES

ICON Energy has been asked to defend its high trading figures by the regulator at the Australian Securities Exchange.

It was a similar case for listed copper miner Cudeco. It would seem that investors are coming out of the woodwork and buying shares at a rapid rate in two of the Gold Coast’s most successful companies.

The ASX put a question or two to Cudeco yesterday as shares jumped from $4.43 last Friday to a $4.97 high yesterday. Cudeco chairman Wayne McCrae (pictured) was at a loss to explain the hike and the large number of shares traded, other than to say ‘they were going off’.

Icon shares jumped 19 per cent to a high of 25c as more than 7.7 million in shares were traded.

In a statement to the ASX today, Icon managing director Ray James, said the company had no explanation for the price change in the securities of the company, other than the following ‘non-price sensitive information’.

Jakabar Pty Limited (a wholly owned subsidiary of Icon Energy Limited), Stanwell Corporation Limited (“Stanwell”), Icon Gas Productions Pty Ltd (the “Operator”) and the Company are all parties to a Farmin Agreement as amended on 26 February 2010 (“Farmin Agreement”).

The Farmin Agreement requires the Operator to provide Stanwell with a First Stage Final Report upon completion of the First Stage Work Program and the Early Works Program.

On 17 June 2010 Stanwell was provided the completed First Stage Final Report.

In accordance with the Farmin Agreement, Stanwell must:

(a) within 60 days from the date of receiving the First Stage Final Report, i.e. by 16 August 2010, notify the Company in writing whether Stanwell’s board of directors has resolved to seek (or not to seek, as the case may be) approval from Stanwell’s shareholding Ministers for a decision to commit to the Second Stage Work Program;

(b) within 4 months from the date of receiving the First Stage Final Report, i.e. by 16 October 2010, notify the Company in writing as to its decision to commit (or not to commit, as the case may be) to the Second Stage Work Program.

For the record, Icon has until August to find enough CSG to obligate a $32 billion deal with the China-owned Sino Gas, while Cudeco will start pulling copper out of the ground in September following the finalisation of its mining licence on the Rocklands project near Cloncurry.