Cardero Resource Corp is in no rush to become the next Canadian metallurgical coal miner acquired by a big international miner.

Last month, China Winsway Coking Coal Holdings Ltd and Marubeni Corp of Japan agreed to acquire Grande Cache Coal Corp a metallurgical coal producer in Western Canada for CAD 1 billion securing supply of a key ingredient for steel production as emerging-market economic growth fuels construction and manufacturing activity. In April, Walter Energy Inc WLT 0.25% completed its USD 3.2 billion acquisition of Canadian coal producer Western Coal Corp.

Cardero is developing the Carbon Creek metallurgical coal project in northeast British Columbia. Chief Executive Mr Michael Hunter agrees that the need for coal in theory makes smaller coal miners potential takeover targets but that's not his focus.

Mr Hunter said Cardero objective is on adding value by advancing our Carbon Creek asset towards production. He said that "There's always interest expressed in large metallurgical coal assets these days, but we focus more on how to advance the asset towards production."

Cardero is expected later this quarter to provide details on the estimated capital expenditures to develop the project.

(Sourced from Market Watch)