Roman Copper names Valhalla chief as head of Romanian operations, wants meeting with PM, Economy Minister

Roman Copper, the company which won the bid to take over Romania's copper mine Cupru Min in a EUR 200 million deal but failed to sign the privatization contract with the state, wants to meet Romanian Prime Minister Mihai Razvan Ungureanu and Economy Minister Lucian Bode. The meeting is supposed to clarify the misunderstandings in talks on the copper mine takeover. Roman Copper was supposed to sign the privatization contract for Cupru Min late last week. After long negotiations, a series of contradictory statements surfaced in the media. The buyer said it had agreed to all the privatization terms, while the Economy Ministry said in a statement that the negotiation failed and the privatization needed to be restarted. Economy Minister Lucian Bode was not part of the first series of negotiations last Friday (April 6 ). Roman Copper recently named Joel Hayes as its president for Romania, who would coordinate the privatization. Hayes, a former chief investment officer of the Romanian American Fund (RAEF), is the principal of Valhalla Resources, a company involved in precious and base metals exploration in Romania and Turkey. Romanian media suggested Valhalla Resources is behind the Roman Copper project. The company, owned by McLeod Williams Capital, suspended its shares on the Toronto Stock Exchange around the time of the Cupru Min bid and later said it was close to acquiring an important mining project. Valhalla's project in Romania is Bratosin Hill in Transylvania. Roman Copper was set up in Canada in November 2011 by the investment bank Bayfront Capital Partners to participate in the Cupru Min privatization. The company won the bid for copper mine Cupru Min Abrud in Romania, in a deal worth some EUR 200 million. Three other companies signed up for the bid: Australian OZ Minerals, Bulgarian Ellatzite-Med AD and Dundee Holding from the Netherlands. The Bulgarian firm was disqualified just before the start of the bid. The starting price in the bid on March 26 was EUR 57.3 million. Cupru Min Abrud has estimated reserves of 900,000 tonnes of copper at Rosia Poieni. However, only a small amount of of it can be extracted every year. The investor needs to pay a royalty on copper extracted, of 4 to 6 percent, to the Romanian state. Romania’s Cupru Min ended 2011 with EUR 37.9 million in sales, 41 percent above the 2010 level, and a single functional production line of the existing four. editor@romania-insider.com