Bateman Engineering Share Discussion Threads

[simon gordon] 21/5/2008 08:02

One in the pipeline:

Mining Weekly - 20/5/08

'.....As engineering project manager, Mills would serve as GeoCam's primary liaison and representative to the project's engineering and design consortium, consisting of Bateman International Projects, Roberts & Schaefer Australia, and Group Five Projects.....'

[affc21] 20/5/2008 08:36

In header as requested, Simon.

Hope I'm not jumping the gun here, but having watched the amount of stock available to purchase online (via Selftrade) reduced to 750 shares as I write (from a previously available 10.000+), it would seem the overhang has well and truly been cleared out.

As ever DYOR

[simon gordon] 19/5/2008 14:44

affc21,

Two more Mining Related Websites for the header:





Thank you

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Giant Canadian competitior:



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Link to Change Management - 12/07:

[simon gordon] 18/5/2008 12:02

15 February 2008:

"Bateman expands Laos capability with another gold project"

Bateman Engineering Pty Ltd (Bateman) will be the lead consultant for the Pan Australian Resources Ban Houayxai gold-silver project in Laos. The pre-feasibility study is already underway and will continue through to the third quarter 2008, with the feasibility due for completion mid 2009.

Bateman has been contracted by the Pan Australian Resources operating company Phu Bia Mining in Laos to complete the pre-feasibility and feasibility studies for the project.

The Ban Houayxai gold-silver deposit (pronounced Ban Hoy-Sai) is located in the south west corner of the Phu Bia Contract Area in Laos approximately 120 kilometres north of the capital Vientiane.

Australia and South East Asia Managing Director, Peter Strimaitis, said that working with Pan Australian Resources provides an exciting opportunity to support one of the most dynamic growth-oriented mining companies in the South East Asian region.

"We are excited to be involved with Pan Australian Resources as they develop their outstanding portfolio of projects and we look forward to building on the relationship and supporting Pan Australian Resources well into the future." he said.



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Background info. on Metplant acquisition:

Acquisition of dynamic Perth-based engineering firm Metplant Engineering Services caps a year of vigorous growth for Bateman Australia and South East Asia (Bateman).

Bateman re-launched in Australia at the beginning of this year as an autonomous business unit of global giant Bateman Engineering NV (BENV), an international process engineering and project execution company.

BENV's share price has tripled since listing on the Alternative Investment Market of the London Stock Exchange in October 2005.

Bateman Australia and South East Asia's first acquisition makes perfect strategic sense, according to Managing Director Peter Strimaitis. More may follow.

"We looked at good-fit companies in late January, approached Metplant in February and signed off on the deal in July," he said.

"Bateman now owns 100 percent of shares in Metplant and it will continue to trade as a fully-owned subsidiary."

Mr Strimaitis said Metplant met all the criteria demanded by the parent company's Acquisitions Policy.

"It's a healthy, well-run business with no significant issues requiring immediate structural or management change. It's process-engineering-based, so we're culturally similar. And our interests and skills are complementary – there's no overlap," he said.

"Metplant's wide experience of comminution and concentrator design meshes with our leading edges expertise in hydromet design. This means that together we can handle everything associated with any scale and complexity of minerals processing plant – from comminution to end product."

Metplant's recent track record in nickel and gold (both within Australia and internationally, with current projects in Vietnam and Egypt) would bolster Bateman's position in these commodities, he said.

"Bateman globally has operated in more than 60 countries, but so far these haven't included Egypt and, more importantly, Vietnam. Metplant's current activities there represent a fantastic strategic opportunity for Bateman to gain ground-level entry to those markets."

The Metplant acquisition would also expand Bateman's activities in emergent areas such as magnetite iron ore, Mr Strimaitis said.

Full integration is scheduled to be complete within 12 months. An Integration Manager has been appointed and an Integrated Organisational Chart has been developed. Each party will continue current projects as planned before the acquisition, and execution of new projects will draw on the two parties' combined resources.

In the meantime, it will be business as usual for Metplant clients, according to Metplant founder and managing director David Phipps.

"We've built some very valuable client relationships and those will continue, with the same principals and staff offering the same depth and quality of expertise and service," Mr Phipps said.

"Those relationships have helped us grow. And combining our resources with Bateman's widens the opportunities for all concerned – individually and collectively."

Physical arrangements will see Metplant retaining its relatively new offices in Belmont, Perth, while Bateman staff move from outgrown premises in suburban Mt Pleasant to new quarters in West Perth. This will give Bateman a suburban and an inner city presence in Perth while accommodating a significant increase in staff. Including Metplant, Bateman now has over 150 personnel based in Western Australia, with this number constantly expanding.

In Brisbane, Bateman retains offices at Milton and will take up additional space at Milton to accommodate continued expansion, with 100 personnel now based in Queensland.

Key Metplant staff will continue working for Bateman, with incentives including expanded career paths, a diverse client base and a globally-known brand name.

Mr Strimaitis said Bateman Australia and South East Asia, like its parent company, was a high-end processing company with diverse interests and a good record for attracting and keeping staff.

"We're involved in leading-edge projects world-wide, we have a number of world-firsts under our belts and we have close relationships with research groups," he said.

"Our projects are innovation-driven, we're right into new technology and we offer interesting work – and that's probably why we've been successful in an under-supplied recruitment market.

"The amount and variety of work on our books fully supports our recent growth in staff numbers. Having Metplant on board will expand and strengthen that position."

[simon gordon] 17/5/2008 10:58

From BATE's website in Russia:

'Bateman intends to grow in the CIS region to achieve a dominant position in a full range of project sizes within 2-3 years. The specific goals include the following:

♦ Establishing Bateman within 3 years as the leading engineering firm in the CIS;

♦ Steady revenue of $30-50 million per year from sales of small and medium size projects plus unit and spares sales (essentially via the operation of the Intertech Mining business);

♦ Winning larger projects (over $100 million) every 18-24 months on average;

♦ Dominating the engineering and LSTK business in the area of Minerals & Metals in Eurasia;

♦ To have an overall revenue of $180-200 million within 5 years;

♦ To achieve a net margin of 10-15% (profit before group costs and tax).'

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Insight on BATE:

GROWTH PLAN BRIEF – No 5 (October 2007) 16 October 2007

Dear Collegues

A number of significant developments have occurred at Bateman Engineering since the last Change Management Team briefing in June, and as a result the corporate growth plan remains slightly ahead of schedule.

Transition from Historical Matrix Structure

With regard to the Hindustan Zinc concentrator project in India, some labour unrest mid year resulted in a temporary decrease in the rate of progress; however, subsequent strenuous recruitment efforts resulted in the project being 73 % complete at the end of September.

In South Africa, the signed handover certificate for the IFM sinter plant was received and a responsibility matrix for the Blue Ridge Platinum project was developed which will now be used as a model, with some modifications, for generic technology supply packages.

A qualified letter of intent in respect of the Camatchia diamond project in Angola was received, and a project implementation strategy was agreed on for the project. This comprises M&M providing project management and other services to the Diamonds team to ensure that the full capabilities of the Boksburg office are utilised to manage the project effectively.

In Botswana, Diamonds and BET representatives moved into new offices in Gaborone. On the Boksburg campus, an agreement was signed with Iingcaphephe Metallurgical Services allowing them to utilise the laboratory facilities to offer analytical and metallurgical services to external clients.

Business Development

An important development is the award of a US$100 million contract, for the supply of two 2,750 t/day sulphuric acid plants, to Bateman Engineering by the Ambatovy project (in Madagascar). The M&M acid plant centre of excellence strategy will be assisted greatly by this award, with a number of new acid plant enquiries already being received.

Mergers and Acquisitions

Two acquisitions were completed, Metplant (an engineering processing design and project management business) and the mining process division of Intertech. Metplant is based in Perth and is focused on gold and nickel projects among others. Intertech is a US incorporated company operating in the Former Soviet Union, primarily from its office in Moscow. The acquisition of Intertech will facilitate the establishment of the Russian Spoke, a business plan for which has already been developed.

Commercial Management

New guidelines published include the establishment of procedures for estimating and then managing project profit and contingency, as well as a new policy and guideline concerning engagement letters for feasibility studies. In Australia, a complete suite of standard forms of contract has now been issued for use in this legal jurisdiction.

Engineering

M&M and Diamonds continued to roll out a comprehensive training programme for engineers in all disciplines, and they have developed a common strategy for compliance with specific key procedures to be used on projects as well as to predict future workload.

Financial

There were a number of developments in this area starting with Bateman Engineering being admitted to the FTSE AIM 100 Index. In addition, the financial results for the year ended 30 June 2007 were announced, showing record revenue, profit, order book and new order figures, as well as many operational highlights.

The Cognos system was used by all business units for budget submissions for the first time, with the budget for year end June 2008 being approved by Excom and the Board.

Financial analysts' reports (Numis, Brewin Dolphin and Dresdner Kleinwort) continued to be positive about Bateman Engineering, and approximately US$40 million of additional capital was raised on the London Stock Exchange.

A corporate policy on mandatory disclosure of information to the public and our shareholders has been issued and the Investor Guide section of the website has been upgraded to comply with a new AIM rule.

Indian Hub Establishment

The Hub establishment continued to make good progress with the completion dates of most of the establishment activities being advanced by 2 to 3 months in the Growth Plan schedule. Office space in Pune, India for the Hub, of approximately 800 square metres, has been secured and registration of the preferred name of the Hub legal entity in India, "Bateman Global Services", has commenced.

Suresh Kumar has been appointed Senior General Manager – Hub Operations in Bangalore to ensure immediate coordination of Hub services until the new office is established.

Project Management and Controls

A number of offers were made to Project Managers currently based in several different international locations.

A comprehensive analysis of Bateman Engineering's Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system requirements has been completed, while, as an interim measure, a short term ERP system for India and various support systems in Australia are currently being procured.

The ERP investigation team confirmed that the Bateman Project Management Overview (PMO) remains a good document with relevance to our current focus on complex LSTK projects, and proposed that it be the template for developing this module of the ERP system.

Public Relations

Press coverage included South African and international coverage on Galvanox and the Sepon processes, on the RBCT expansion, on our Diamonds and Modular Plants, on our operations in Australia (including the Metplant deal) and a press release from Baja Mining announcing the contract with Bateman Engineering (Australia) for the process design of the Boleo project. Financial press releases were issued in accordance with AIM requirements announcing the contracts for the Muliashi copper project in Zambia as well as the Intertech deal, while the Financial Times (UK), Guardian (UK), Business Report (RSA) and Business Day (RSA) published favourable articles on our annual results.

Bateman Globes No. 62, 63 and 64 were published and added to the website, and the Australian website www.batemanengineering.com.au, redirecting immediately to the main corporate website, was registered.

Hard copies of the BENV annual report were released on 6 September and also made available on the web. A new corporate video has been completed, and is available on DVD or via the web.

The Russian Spoke set up a Bateman Engineering stand at the Minex exhibition in Moscow.

Staff

Care and Wellness Schemes for staff are now in place in South Africa and Australia, and an improved accident insurance scheme was put in place in South Africa, with the intention of extending this to other countries soon. In India, an employee consultation and feedback programme was initiated.

The Employee satisfaction survey issued to all Boksburg based staff indicated moderately positive results, although only 27 % of staff completed the questionnaire. Major concerns related to remuneration, performance management, recognition, communication, training, operating systems and job stress, most of which are receiving management attention.

Career path and succession planning interviews with nearly all senior managers have been completed, and a summary of expectations, aspirations and recommendations was prepared.

The immediate assignment of major discipline coordinators across the Group was approved by Excom for each of the Project Management, Project Controls and SHE functions. The nomination of Mike Burks (Process Engineering) and Trevor Budd (Quality) as global practice leaders was confirmed.

BET initiated a "Survivor Initiative" programme aimed at improving its status as an employer of choice.

Recruitment has been very active with the following senior appointments: Eddie du Rand was appointed as MD of M&M, while Yuri Gavrilov was appointed MD of the Russian Spoke.

India, Ranjit Lal joined as GM, Human Resources and Administration for Bateman India. Bharani Shankar joined as Human Resources GM for the Hub, Bhaskara Rao was appointed as Manager, IT Infrastructure and Venkat Subramani joined as Manager, Administration, all based in India.

Senior staff appointments in Boksburg included Ray du Plessis (Senior Contract Administrator, M&M) and Lourens Mostert (Senior Project Manager, Diamonds). Louis Nell re-joined the company in Diamonds, as did Juan-Pierre (JP) Holmes who was appointed Manager: Insurance – Sub Saharan Africa. Richard Klue was promoted to General Manager: Base Metals, André de Jong to Process Manager in the Pyrometallurgy Centre of Excellence, and Frik van der Spuy to Senior General Manager: Engineering, M&M. A new Country Manager, Ketane Sithole, was appointed in Botswana.

At BET, Johan Slabbert was appointed Manager: Structural Engineering, Juan Claase, Manager: Procurement, Gawie Bosman, Senior Project Manager and Werner Burger, Commercial Manager.

In Australia, Wayne Banks was appointed Manager, SHE, Thomas Muttrie, Contracts Manager, Shane Diggins, Manager, Engineering and Manjur Sarder, Project Controls Manager. David Phipps of Metplant will become the GM, Business Strategy & Development for Bateman Australia & South East Asia, while Marco Battaglia will be the GM, Nickel & Gold Processing.

In China, Yang Lixiong has been appointed GM, International Sourcing (Procurement).

Kirshni Naidoo, Conrad Blake (top student), Liam Cafferty, Sharron Midgley and Paul van der Merwe graduated from the Wits Business School 2006 Management Advancement Programme. The M&M Process department hosted 85 students and gave 10 technical presentations as part of our investment in recruiting good process engineers.

Bateman Engineering participated in a Homecoming Revolution (South African initiative) exhibition in London, UK, as a recruitment exercise to attract expatriate engineers and other key personnel to return to South Africa (specifically to work for Bateman Engineering).

Supply Chain Management

A procurement office (Sub-Hub) has been established in Beijing, and the international procurement team began to support M&M for procurement in India as well as China, for specific new Southern African projects.

The Supply Chain Management team made good progress in establishing an international vendor database, as well as a global traffic, logistics and expediting group.

Technology

The inaugural Technology Forum meeting was held with representatives from most business units. The primary objective will be to ensure that this year's overall technology budget in excess of US$4 million is used effectively. At a follow up meeting in September, the forum reported that, despite limited resource availability, investigations had made significant progress in the following areas: modified AC furnace electrodes, DC arc furnace IP, a furnace cooling agreement, Aspen simulation software, SPG project technology package inputs, large mill capability, diamond plant process simulation, alternative density tracers, radiometric sorting, direct copper electrowinning, proprietary sulphur burner, dust recovery cyclones and the modular combined cycle power plant.

Technical papers included a presentation of a comparison of Ion Exchange and Solvent Extraction in Uranium circuits at a base metals conference in Namibia, and a technical paper on Galvanox presented at the Copper 2007 conference in Toronto.

UBC's Canadian Government Grant application for further funding of Galvanox leach process investigations was approved, and interest in Galvanox from potential clients continued to accelerate.

Mike Burks presented several training courses to process engineers at the Bateman India office and at the Boksburg, South Africa office.

Good progress was maintained by Diamonds in developing technological alliances with Wits University and a process simulation specialist with regard to potential improvements in our Diamond plant technology.

Your comments or suggestions on the above or on the plan in general are very welcome, and can be sent by email to [e-mail].

Yours sincerely

Steve Burks, on behalf of the corporate Change Management Team

[simon gordon] 16/5/2008 19:22

Lex - 8/5/08:

MINING CAPEX

Remember those dismal economics classes at school? A rise in demand for a good lifts its price, but then the supply curve shifts, bringing prices back into line. The mining industry has experienced a demand shock, and prices, in nominal terms at least, are through the roof. But has there been, as students might expect, a supply-side response? Sector-wide capital expenditure has jumped since 2002, which roughly marks the beginning of this latest boom. Data from CRU show that aggregate annual mining capex has increased 133 per cent in constant dollars. Over the same period, investment relative to depreciation and the depletion of reserves, has increased from 1.3 times to more than two times last year. On that basis, miners have not tried as hard to build capacity since 1989. Next year, the industry's capex will probably exceed $70bn.

So miners stand accused of underinvesting. One defence is that the industry is now throwing its cash around, but the evidence is mixed. It is true that miners cannot always invest where they want to but they have also shown little appetite for greenfield projects – it is far easier to exploit existing assets. The sector does not exactly suffer when a lack of investment is lifting long-term prices. Besides, with mine lives measured in decades, why would executives blow short-term profits on a project that benefits their successor's successor?

[simon gordon] 16/5/2008 14:35

Here is one in the pipeline:

Mineweb - 2007:

'Contracts are being finalized for basic engineering and construction. Wardrop Engineering in Vancouver, BC has commenced the set-up and basic engineering phase. It is expected that they will be supported by Bateman Engineering for Process Engineering and by a major construction company with experience in Mexico for constructability and pricing reviews during this phase.'

[stegrego] 16/5/2008 12:19

Hmmmm not so good - but was 2 months ago

[simon gordon] 16/5/2008 12:17

Minesite - 13/3/08:

Twenty-one years after acquiring the Moma titanium minerals deposit in Mozambique, Kenmare still hasn't got the project working to plan. Having gritted its teeth over delays to construction in 2006 because of late equipment arrival, celebrations last year after production eventually commenced were cut short by broken motors and power outages. Managing director Michael Carvill is clearly tired and frustrated by the problems, not to mention having to drop tools to explain the situation to analysts and investors in person. But in true Irish spirit, he is soldiering on and is confident of resolving most of the technical issues by the end of next week - only a few days late for St. Patrick's Day, but no doubt still cause enough for a pint of the black stuff.

Five shipments of ilmenite have been made since Moma started production in late 2007. It was all going to plan until the dredge motors broke. As an interim measure, Kenmare adapted its slurry motors and restarted operations. The two engineering contractors on Moma, Multiplex and Bateman, took the original parts away to be repaired, only for the motors to fail again upon reinstallation. "We're on a fixed-price contract with these companies. While this model keeps costs down during the mine development stage, there are limitations in overseeing the contractors' decisions", says Mr Carvill. "They obviously sourced cheap parts and paid the price, as they are liable for all the repairs. We've now done our own designs but these new motors will still take some time to be made and installed".

And not only has Kenmare been battling with motor problems, but it has also suffered failures of winches, zircon circuits and electrostatic systems. Intermittent power supplies lasting only one or two seconds kept shutting down the mining operations. "It was no different than seeing the lights in your house or office flicker, but we have controllers on the motors to sense power volatility. Every time the electricity supply dipped, the system sensed danger and shut down operations", explains Mr Carvill. Capacitors have since been installed to cope with any short-term power glitches, while replacement parts have been found for the other technical problems. The last task is to ditch broken vibratory screens and install new parts later this month.

Once this housework has been completed, Kenmare will begin to ramp up production. In the next two months output levels should be more than double February's production level, rising to 50,000 tonnes per months of ilmenite. By December output should exceed 65,000 tonnes per month. Further expansion will then take annual ilmenite production to 1.2 million tonnes by the end of 2009.

[simon gordon] 15/5/2008 19:42

Two competitiors in OZ:





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'Bateman Metals & Mining of Johannesburg is the lead consultant in preparing the study including process plant design and capital cost estimates.'



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Pondering:

Is BATE just a jobbing contractor who deserves to be on a low single digit multiple? Why should BATE be more highly rated? Are the investors selling now making the wiser decision? Will the stock ever be re-rated? Will the share just go sideways for the next 12 months? Will a dribbling of sells push the share down to £1.50 and below? Is there no takeover premium because BSG own c.60%? Why will the Fundies want to buy this obscure AIM stock? With only two brokers covering and little press will BATE remain unknown? Is this a dead money value trap?

[simon gordon] 15/5/2008 14:38

Hi Steg,

I read the MDM prospectus and I did not buy. I think BATE is a better calculated risk that has a higher probability of a positive outcome.

[affc21] 15/5/2008 12:52

Bateman Engineering selected as consultants this week - see article below:



Nord Resources Announces 2008 First-Quarter Results
(announced 14 May 2008)

Outlook

"We are on schedule for production of approximately four million pounds
of new copper in 2008, and subject to the timing of receipt of an air quality
permit, to reach the full production rate of about 25 million pounds of copper
per year at the Johnson Camp Mine in early spring 2009. Our work with the
Arizona Department of Environmental Quality to obtain the air quality permit
is progressing as expected," Mr. Perry said.
"In addition, this week, we selected Bateman Engineering Inc. as
consultants to investigate the potential that we believe exists to increase
the Johnson Camp Mine's annual production beyond the current target of
25 million pounds of copper per year that we based on the current level of
estimated reserves," he said.
As previously announced, and .......................................

[stegrego] 15/5/2008 12:23

Simon,

Good stuff.

o/t have you done any such research on MDM and / or taken a position there?

They use the EPCM model which i guess takes away much of the risk....

[simon gordon] 15/5/2008 11:59

STRENGTHS
Track record.
Balance sheet
Technology focus.
Knowledge base of employees.
Extensive spread of business: Metals & Minerals, Engineered Technologies, Metal Recovery and Power & Energy.

OPPORTUNITIES
EPCM/Hybrid contracts will increase margins in coming years.
Targeting gross margin on LSTK projects up from 8%-10% to 12%-15%.
EPS & DPS increase as Pound falls against Dollar.
Maximise Delkor's sales with Group balance sheet.
Intertech gives greater scale in the CIS.
Australian division re-launch has a staff of 300.
Indian & Chinese hub and spoke.

WEAKNESSES
Project execution.
South African power problems.

THREATS
Input inflation.
Project/s goes pear shaped.
Project/s get delayed.
Credit crunch.
Global slump.
Black economic empowerment legislation leads to shareholder dilution.

[simon gordon] 15/5/2008 10:10

I have spoken with three journalists in the mining industry:

1. SOUTH AFRICA
-Quality outfit.
-Good reputation.
-Demand will stay strong.
-Large sized company.

2. SOUTH AFRICA
-Heard positive and negative on the company.
-Demand will stay strong.

3. AUSTRALIA
-Endless opportunities.
-Fierce competition.
-USP: niche expertise.
-Technology track record good.
-Ausenco JV on two projects: Laos and Zambia. Must mean BATE are a quality outfit.
-Over the next two to three years large volume of projects available in OZ.
-Plenty of heavy mineral projects likely.
-India and Brazil not in the equation for metal demand yet.
-J. Ben-Cnaan appeared almost like a CEO.

I think the main points I came away with are that BATE are a quality outfit, with good technology and that the demand for engineering services will stay strong over the coming years.

[simon gordon] 13/5/2008 20:21

Bateman Indaba Presentation - 2/07:

MARKET RISKS
~Shortage of skilled resources, wage inflation.
~Bottlenecks at fabrication and construction companies, cost inflation.
~Escalating costs of supplies and materials (e.g. steel).

PROJECT EXECUTION RISKS
~Possible cost overruns.
~Possible delays, caused by:
Internal failures.
Supplier or subcontractor delays.
Insufficient geological data.
Changes in scope.

[glasshalfull] 12/5/2008 08:26

Looks like MDM has got it's IPO away successfully.....share price up 3.5% as I type (160.5p)
I'm unable to determine the merits of the company (in comparison to BATE)as the prospectus is yet to be posted on their web site.

Had a chuckle at this morning's RNS - confirmation of Global Minerals 10% increase in their BATE shareholding last week




"BSGR regards Bateman as a company with exceptional value extremely well positioned in its industry. BSGR is fully supportive of Bateman's ongoing operations, Board of Directors, management and its future endeavors."

They're going to say that with 62% of the equity now!

Regards,
GHF

[affc21] 11/5/2008 19:09

Sunday Times May 11, 2008


MDM Engineering mining veterans exploit African resources boom.
by Dominic O'Connell

A GROUP of mining veterans are to float their engineering company in London to capitalise on the African resources boom.

MDM Engineering will list on AIM, the lightly regulated junior stock market, tomorrow in a deal expected to value it at £54m.

The company was set up in 2006 when investors bought out the assets of MDM Ferroman, an African engineering group pushed into liquidation by debt.

The company builds processing plants and other equipment for mid-sized mining groups. It has an order book of projects worth about $400m (£205m).

Bill Nairn, a former technical director at Anglo American, will be nonexecutive chairman, and Grant Lowman, formerly of Bateman Engineering, chief executive. Lowman said there was a shortage of experienced engineering staff.

"Medium-tier miners need to bring in engineering expertise, and there is not a lot of it about," Lowman said. "We are in an absolute sweet spot because of the boom in African mining and the few people with the necessary skills."

The main reason for the float was to give staff an incentive, he added. "About 90% of our staff already hold options on shares. Having a listing will give them a strong lock-in at the company."

MDM has been advised by broker Numis Securities.



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Hopefully more interest will be shown within this sector, with the MDM Engineering IPO.

[simon gordon] 09/5/2008 14:13

MDM Engineering who are hoping to float next week are looking to raise £5m @ £1.45 per share to give a market cap of £54.3m.

I am waiting for a copy of the prospectus to compare valuations.

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BATE are collaborating with and licensing technology from Mintek:



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Alrosa are Russia's biggest diamond miners:



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BATE had/have a dispute with Alrosa:

14/06/2006

'Alrosa and Bateman bury hatchet

Alrosa, Russia's state diamond miner, has resolved a long-running dispute with Bateman Engineering, the Israeli-owned mine consultancy, by agreeing to award fresh contracts to clear an earlier arbitration claim.

According to a statement issued by Bateman today, it has signed a "reconciliation agreement" with Alrosa, the terms of which satisfy an earlier international arbitration award of $8.2 million, which Alrosa had challenged.

It said the terms of the deal provide that "the amount of the arbitration award will be paid progressively to Bateman Engineering in the event that the full amount is not earned from projects awarded by Alrosa. The expected minimum economic return under the Reconciliation Agreement will over time be no less than if the amount owing under the Award is paid in full."

Bateman Engineering said both sides are now "confident that this reconciliation will result in a renewal of the commercial relationship between the two organizations.

"It will provide BPL with the potential to participate in some of the major expansion projects which Alrosa, the producer of about 25% of the world's rough diamond output, is expected to undertake in the near future," Bateman said.'

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BATE carry a $4.2m receivable due from Alrosa on the balance sheet.

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BATE looked to have landed a monster contract but it has gone comatose:

'Bateman Wins Alrosa Tender Bid

19.03.07 / Mining

Bateman Engineering has won a tender bid for a contract to develop a new diamond mine for Alrosa in the Arkhangelsk region of north western Russia. If implemented, the mine would become the first Russian diamond mine outside the eastern Siberian region of Yakutia.

However, Alrosa has yet to decide on when to sign, or start the contract, and how to implement the controversial and heavily indebted project, which has been consuming funds, but producing few results.

This week Jonathan Ben-Cnaan, chief financial officer of Bateman Engineering, told MiningMx, a South African mining publication, that his company has a $531million engineering contract with Severalmaz, a Russian diamond-miner once controlled by De Beers, which sold it to Alrosa.'



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BATE also had a dispute with Metso. Allegedly Alrosa passed on to Metso techonolgy for diamond processing.

[glasshalfull] 09/5/2008 13:42

You certainly are uncovering a few gems Simon.

Still researching.
Haven't uncovered anything that hasn't been mentioned on the thread.
Looks increasingly likely to have been ground to astonishingly cheap levels by an overhang and culmination of everyone feeling that the share price fall was telling it's own story - further bad news round the corner.

Quite a few buys going through so perhaps a significant amount of investors waiting for this to turn, rather than catch a falling knife.

Who can blame them.

Regards,
GHF

[simon gordon] 09/5/2008 11:33

Mining Weekly - 9/5/08:

Engineering project house Bateman Engineering's pyromettallury division has secured world-wide rights to market the technology to the nonferrous pyrometallurgical industry, with the conclusion of a license agreement between Bateman Engineering and the University of Melbourne, in Australia.

Composite Furnace Module (CFM) cooling technology has been used by mining giant BHP Billiton in its electric arc slag cleaning furnace at Olympic Dam, in Australia, to achieve a fourfold increase in campaign life, delivering millions of dollars in yearly relining savings.

[simon gordon] 08/5/2008 18:26

Big share moves:

21/10/05 - IPO BATE placed 7,142,857 shares @ £2.00 = £12.4m.
10/3/06 - Global Minerals sell 4,000,000 shares @ £3.20 = £12.8m.
14/6/07 - BATE placed 4,000,000 shares @ £5.00 = £20m.
21/6/07 - Global Minerals sell 1,000,000 shares @ £5.50 = £5.5m.
26/6/07 - Global Minerals sell 1,000,0000 shares @ £5.50 = £5.5m.
2/11/07 - Global Minerals buy 400,000 shares @ £4.40 = £1.7m.
8/5/08 - Global Minerals buy 4,479,846 shares @ £1.65 = £7.4m.