"Slip, sliding away..."

[Skook]

For those who read and surely found my exposé on Sunshine Coast aggregates riveting, I have a brief update. You may recall the following graphic:

I explained in the third posting (You’re building your dream on a gravel deposit?) that those mineral tenures were filed by a company then called ‘Pan Pacific Aggregates’ which morphed into ‘Astar Minerals PLC’ and purchased the Quadling Quarry between Abbotsford and Chilliwack.

As I was searching the net for info on another company, I discovered that Astar Minerals PLC has gone bankrupt. Apparently in September, 2012, Astar reached an agreement with an American company, Aggregates West, to operate its quarries located between Seattle and the US/Canadian border. However, to complete the deal, Astar had to raise some fairly substantial capital, so it turned to its British shareholders. However, given the state the British economy, it met with little success. This failure only compounded Astar’s already dire financial straits and so the directors have decided to go to shareholders with a recommendation that the company switch gears and turn itself into an investment company specializing in the natural resource sector.

According to the company’s shareholder circular:

Quote:As a consequence of the Company’s financial position, the Company is no longer able to finance the operations of its Canadian Assets. Therefore, as part of the Proposals, the Company intends to divest its operations in Canada, so as to allow the Directors to focus on the implementation of the Investing Policy. As stated above, over the past year, the Company has looked at a number of ways to make the Canadian operations sufficiently profitable to support Astar but without success. The Company has now signed, conditional upon Shareholder approval, sale and purchase agreements to sell its Canadian assets, including related debt funding of approximately CAN$1.6 million and other trading liabilities, for a nominal sum (“Disposal”). If for any reason, the sale does not take place, the Canadian operations may have to be placed in administration, liquidation or other insolvency procedure.

Astar Minerals will be meeting with its shareholders on April 25, 2013.

I wonder who has shown an interest in its Sunshine Coast mineral tenures and other coast assets? This could be interesting (or worrisome) for those living on the coast. As for the Quadling Quarry, it ceased operations this past February.