Lumina Copper Corporation has one of the world’s best undeveloped copper projects and the company has made no secret of the fact that it wants to sell itself this year. Lumina are part of entrepreneur Ross Beaty’s mining empire and he has a track record of selling copper miners at big premiums. However it appears that this sale will have to wait a while.

Lumina announced USD 23.75 million private placement financing, and said it expects to complete a preliminary economic assessment on its Taca Taca project early next year. While that is not bad news, it suggests a sale is not imminent. The stock dropped 8.5% on the news.

Mr Matt O’Keefe analyst of Mackie Research Capital said that “The news signals that Lumina will not likely be sold in 2012 as originally guided. This is not entirely unexpected given that in the last few months we’ve seen major miners suspending projects, such as BHP Billiton suspending its Olympic Dam expansion due to weaker markets.”

Source - Financial Post.com

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