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Gold/Mining/Energy : ASHTON MINING OF CANADA (ACA) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: bill who wrote (7657)	7/31/2000 12:20:47 AM
From: bill	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 7966

MELBOURNE (Reuters) - South African diamond giant De Beers launched a A$522 million hostile takeover offer for Ashton Mining Ltd on Monday in a bid to expand into Australia. The Ashton bid follows a C$259 million hostile bid by De Beers last month for Canadian miner Winspear Diamonds Inc, in line with its new strategy to market its own gems and run more foreign mines. A successful bid would give De Beers a 40.1 percent stake in the Argyle diamond mine, Australia's largest, and reflects a new focus on foreign acquisitions as part of an overhaul of the world diamond king. Ashton said the A$1.62 a share offer, pitched 20 percent above its closing price on Friday and 42 percent above its average price in the past 30 days, was too low and urged shareholders not to sell. ``Ashton believes the offer is opportunistic,'' said the miner. However, De Beers said the offer provided full and fair value and few investors were willing to punt on a higher bid. Ashton shares hit a high of A$1.64 before settling up 25 cents at A$1.60 in early afternoon trade, two cents below the offer price. Ashton's shares were languishing below 70 cents a year ago and have risen from about A$1 to Friday's A$1.35 in recent weeks on takeover talk and a company forecast that first half profit would exceed last year's full year profit by 10-20 percent. Ashton reported a 1999 profit after tax and before abnormals of A$17.5 million. NEW ERA FOR DE BEERS De Beers, which sells over 60 percent of the world's uncut diamonds, has said it plans to focus on boosting global demand, rather than rely on constraints to maintain prices by soaking up diamonds from rival producers. Ashton's key asset and earner is its stake in the Argyle mine in Western Australia state, which is 59.9 percent owned by Rio Tinto Ltd/Plc and produced 29.7 million carats in 1999. The mine had been expected to close within 10 years but Ashton said recently it was possible the mine life could be extended until at least 2018. It supplies diamonds used for the rapidly growing market of affordable jewelry sold in department stores. In the first half of the year the price for Argyle diamonds rose by more than 10 percent. David Walker, director of resources research house Auzeq Securities, said the market had not yet fully priced in the earnings turnaround that was coming through for Ashton. ``However A$1.62 is a high price. It's clearly going to tempt some but the question remains for Ashton shareholders whether that is a full price being paid for the commercial and marketing aspects that De Beers stands to gain from the bid,'' Walker said. Ashton also owns the Merlin mine in the Northern Territory, a stake in the Cuango diamond mine in Angola, a 35 percent stake in Australian gold miner Aurora Gold Ltd . Malaysia Mining Corp Bhd, which owned about 49.9 percent of Ashton, has already agreed to sell a 19.9 percent stake to De Beers. ``Malaysian Mining said they will sell the balance to the highest offer,'' said Ashton general manager corporate Glenister Lamont. Lamont said the company expected other diamond miners to look carefully at a possible counterbid to get their hands on Argyle. The Ashton bid comes on the heels of Rio Tinto Plc's A$2.8 billion hostile takeover offer for Australia's North Ltd, since topped by a A$3.1 billion offer from London-listed Anglo American Plc . Anglo American Plc has a 32.2 percent interest in De Beers. Ashton has appointed CIBC as advisers. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- BACK TO Sympatico NewsExpress:

To: bill who wrote (7657)	12/7/2000 9:15:20 AM
From: Famularo	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 7966

Ashton Mining of Canada Inc.: K252 Mini-Bulk Sample Returns Best Ever Alberta Results VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--Robert T. Boyd, President and CEO of Ashton Mining of Canada Inc. ("Ashton") is pleased to report that the mini-bulk sample collected this fall from the K252 kimberlite on the Buffalo Hills property has returned the most encouraging results of the 35 kimberlites discovered in Alberta to date by the Ashton-AEC-Pure Gold joint venture. Background Discovered in March 2000, the K252 kimberlite exhibits two distinct phases: a fine- to medium-grained volcaniclastic kimberlite and a kimberlite breccia. As reported on July 19 and August 14, 2000, the initial microdiamond results from K252 ranked among the best obtained from the Alberta program. A program of further drilling was therefore completed in October 2000, resulting in the collection of 1.45 tonnes of kimberlite from four core holes. Because of difficult ground conditions at the contact between the two kimberlite phases, most of the material was collected from the volcaniclastic phase. Diamond Results A 1.28 tonne sample of volcaniclastic kimberlite processed through the dense media separation plant at Ashton's North Vancouver laboratory returned a total of 0.85 carats of diamonds larger than 0.8 mm using a square aperture screen. The largest diamond recovered was a colourless composite crystal weighing 0.36 carat. The estimated diamond content of this mini-bulk sample is 66.2 carats per hundred tonnes. Although derived from a small quantity of material, these results confirm the presence of a population of larger stones and substantiate the need to collect a larger sample. Ashton's laboratory also carried out microdiamond analysis on an 82.6 kg sample of volcaniclastic kimberlite and a 37.2 kg sample of kimberlite breccia collected during the fall 2000 program. The results of these tests are summarized in Table 1, together with previously reported microdiamond results. /T/ Table 1: Microdiamond Summary Diamonds --------------------- Micro Macro (0.1- Greater than 0.5 mm) or equal to Kimberlite Type Date Reported Sample Weight 0.5 mm (one (kg) dimension) -------------------------------------------------------------------- Breccia July 19, 2000 65.5 101 5 (Note 1) -------------------------------------------------------------------- Volcaniclastic August 14, 2000 41.6 34 3 (Note 2) -------------------------------------------------------------------- Volcaniclastic December 7, 2000 82.6 84 9 (Note 3) -------------------------------------------------------------------- Breccia December 7, 2000 37.2 25 2 (Note 4) -------------------------------------------------------------------- Total 226.9 244 19 -------------------------------------------------------------------- Notes 1. Three macrodiamonds measured greater than 0.5 mm in two dimensions with the two largest stones measuring 2.35 x 2.19 x 0.63 mm and 1.68 x 1.49 x 1.25 mm. 2. One macrodiamond measured greater than 0.5 mm in two dimensions. 3. Five macrodiamonds measured greater than 0.5 mm in two dimensions, with the two largest stones measuring 1.60 x 0.68 x 0.46 mm and 1.32 x 1.02 x 0.37 mm. 4. One macrodiamond measured 2.45 x 1.70 x 0.45 mm. /T/ 2001 Program Ashton is very encouraged by the K252 diamond results and the collection of a larger mini-bulk sample from K252 is being planned for early 2001. K252 was identified as a drill target by an airborne electromagnetic (EM) survey and was further defined using ground EM surveys, a gravity survey and seismic data. It is the first kimberlite discovered in Alberta by the joint venture to date that has a weak magnetic signature, unlike the previous 34 kimberlites which display a sharp magnetic contrast against the surrounding mudstone bedrock. The association of weakly magnetic characteristics with high diamond content in K252 has significant exploration implications for the joint venture properties in Alberta. Ground geophysical programs will consequently be conducted to define and prioritize EM and seismic targets for drilling in the first quarter of the year. The joint venturers on the Buffalo Hills property and their approximate interests are Ashton 45 percent, Alberta Energy Company Ltd. (AEC.TSE) 45 percent, and Pure Gold Minerals Inc. (PUG.TSE) 10 percent. Ashton is the operator of the Alberta programs. Brooke Clements, Professional Geologist, who is Ashton's Vice President, Exploration, is responsible for the design and conduct of the programs. -30- FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT: Ashton Mining of Canada Inc. Robert T. Boyd, President & CEO (604) 983-7750 Website: www.ashton.ca or Ashton Mining of Canada Inc. Ariel Bowers, Investor Relations (604) 983-7750 Email: investor@ashton.ca