Widespread completes Chatham Rise work programme

Widespread Energy completes Chatham Rise work programme 2 months early, IPO looms

Dec. 7 (BusinessDesk) – Widespread Energy Ltd. said preliminary work on the Chatham Rise Rock Phosphate project has been completed two months ahead of schedule and presentations are underway to overseas brokerages about an initial public offering.

Widespread owns 90% of the project, which is assessing the feasibility of mining rock phosphate on the sea floor. Talks are underway with both major New Zealand fertiliser companies and with overseas dredging firms to develop extraction technology.

Widespread has identified a suitable candidate to lead the overseas promotional activity and that person is expected to become chairman of the board of the new company at the time of the overseas listing, it said.

Presentations were made to brokerages in Sydney last week and similar presentations will be made to brokers in Toronto early in the New Year, it said.

Widespread was granted a prospecting permit on the Chatham Rise early this year to test whether the area contains an estimated 100 million tonnes of rock phosphate, which could be worth $28 billion.

The estimated size of the resource come from 30-year-old data derived from exploration work carried out by the government and companies such as Fletcher Challenge in the 1970s and 1980s.

Shares of Widespread Energy last traded at 15 cents.

(BusinessDesk)

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