MARKETS SPECTATOR: Sunset for Sundance?

Sundance Resources’s narrative reads like a Raymond Chandler novel and its stock price like a Greek tragedy. The miner told Business Spectator yesterday that it was in talks with a number of potential investors, Chinese and non-Chinese, who may be interested in pumping money into stage one of a 10-year $4.7 billion Cameroon and Congo iron ore project that encompasses mines, roads, railway and a port.

As far as damage control after the collapse of Sichuan Hanlong Group’s 57 cents or  $1.37 billion bid for the company, that is about the best Sundance could do. But it’s hard to see the stock recovering from its swoon. Sundance shares fell 10 cents or 48 per cent yesterday to 11 cents. The shares resumed trading following the detention of Hanlong chief executive Liu Han, he of knee-length mink coat and black Ferrari fame.

Investors in companies with mining projects in Africa are, needless to say, risk takers. Sundance is one stock many probably wished they hadn’t put their faith in.