Another investment by an Australian company in the Greece - following the landmark deal for the acquisition of 49% of BEDDIE by the Macquarie giant - is on the doorstep, as the London-listed, but with an Australian passport, Rockfire Resources is the only company that submitted a binding financial offer in the international tender announced by the Ministry of Environment and Energy for the lease of the Molae mine in the Peloponnese.
The only binding offer
According to Christos Skeiras, head of the Greek company Hellenic Minerals - which «came down» with the Australians of Rockfire in the tender - the consortium has been informed by the Ministry of Environment that they were the only ones of the three originally interested parties that submitted a binding offer, which has been accepted. In this context, it expects to be sent the relevant decision so that the signing of the concession agreement for the exploration and exploitation rights to the mine's deposits for a period of 30 years can follow in the immediate future.
«This is a very important transaction for Rockfire, which demonstrates that our country is friendly to foreign investment, especially considering that the Australian group intends to use Greece as a base to expand its activities throughout Europe,» Mr.Skeiras stresses. According to a statement from Rockfire, the company's Board of Directors considers the Molai project to be promising and expands the company's precious metals portfolio. As Rockfire Chairman Gordon Hart says: «The company can acquire a significant zinc deposit in a country that is a safe investment destination. The Greek government is actively seeking to attract investment in the raw materials sector and the country has modern mining legislation and an active mining industry.».
The Australian company caused the launch of the international tender process itself with letters to the General Directorate of Mineral Resources of the Ministry of Environment, demonstrating its interest in the Molae deposit. In the first phase of the tender, apart from Rockfire, two Greek companies had also expressed interest, METE, based in Florina, which owns - among others - a lignite deposit in Prosilio, Kozani, a quartz quarry in Meliti, Florina, and ELLIMET-HELLENIC METALS SA, which is the mineral owner of the definitive chromite concessions in the Kozani-Grevena area.
Rockfire has the Lighthouse, Copper Dome and Copperhead exploration projects in Queensland in its portfolio. The former has 208,000 ounces of gold reserves and according to the company is one of the richest gold deposits in the world. The Queensland region of Australia is rich in underground gold and is where 6% of the continent's gold production is produced.
Finally, it should be noted that the Molae deposit of Laconia, which was discovered following investigations by the Hellenic Authority for Geological and Mineral Exploration (EAGME - formerly IGME) in the 1980s and is located in the concession of the public mining area, contains zinc, silver, lead and cadmium, metals with many applications in industry.
