The company said it decided to end a long-running formal strategic review process aimed at identifying bidders for a stake in the company, despite receiving some interest.
“Bandanna has now terminated the formal strategic review process which was undertaken in conjunction with UBS during 2011,” the company said in a statement to the Australian Securities Exchange.
“Interest by a number of third parties, particularly in joint venture participation in key Bowen Basin projects, will continue via discussions outside of that formal, competitive, process.”
The result of the discussions has the potential to result in funding solutions for project capital expenditure for Bandanna’s assets in both the Bowen and Galilee basins of Queensland.
Back in May 2011, Bandanna announced it had shortlisted bidders for a stake in the company and had appointed financial group UBS to monitor the sale.
But the failure to consolidate a sale or off-take agreement had the industry speculating that the board had not received an attractive offer.
The cancellation of the review process comes as a stark turnaround from October 2011, when Bandanna’s outgoing managing director Ray Shaw confirmed that “there remain a number of parties involved in the strategic review process.”
Meanwhile, the company has upgraded its total JORC-compliant resource inventory to exceed more than 1.6Mt, with more than 1Mt being identified within its Bowen Basin tenements.
The upgrade comes after Bandanna increased the indicated resource of its Springsure Creek project in Queensland by 76% to 228 million tonnes last December.
Bandanna said its resources cache put the company in an attractive position.
“This inventory positions Bandanna as one of the largest thermal coal explorers/developers listed on the ASX,” it said.
“With a 4Mtpa port allocation in Stage 1 of the Wiggins Island coal export terminal in Gladstone, Bandanna has a clear pathway to significant coal production commencing in 2014.”
Bandanna also said it had appointed mining engineer John Pegler as a non-executive director.
Pegler joined the board on January 1.
