News

July 28, 2010

A Marsupial’s Breakfast Or A National Treasure? The Verdict Is Still Out On Kangaroo Resources

By Our Man in Oz

There are two ways to consider a kangaroo. Either it is Australia’s national animal emblem, and half the country’s coat of arms. Or it is a large marsupial with characteristics more akin to a rat than to your conventional lion or eagle as displayed on the coats of arms of other countries. Mixed impressions have also dogged a company called Kangaroo Metals, which around this time last year changed its name to Kangaroo Resources. No-one seemed to be able to make up their minds as to whether the rather crassly-named Kangaroo was worth saluting, or best simply ignored, because its problems were more than name-deep. There was uncertainty over management, and because this particular “roo” had decided to hop all the way up to Indonesia to try its hand at coal mining. Little wonder that its share price has bounced all over the place, in between periods of suspension, from a low of A5.5 cents, up to A33 cents, and more recently down to A15.5 cents.

Today, Kangaroo seems to have steadied itself, albeit as a curious mix of Australian and Indonesian corporate cultures. The prime assets are coal tenements on the island of Kalimantan, also known as Borneo. Small-scale production has started at two projects. More production is scheduled to be underway by the end of the year. On Tuesday the company reported an impressive resource of 297 million tonnes of steaming coal at its Tanur Jaya project, including 80 million tonnes easily accessible via...