635 Vam Ltd (AUS) This gold, antimony and mineral exploration company (1) has a 46.5% stake (CSR's Delhi International Oil has 53.5%) in the small Lake Way uranium mine in Western Australia, for which the government go-ahead was given in early 1982 (2), but later withdrawn by the 1983 Labor government. VAM and Delhi International Oil Corporation of the USA (now Australian-owned) purchased the interest in the project held by Westinghouse's subsidiary Wyoming Minerals Corp in 1981 (3) . The mine has an estimated 3,700 tonnes of uranium oxide, grading at around 1.5 lb uranium oxide per tonne (2).
VAM also had 49% of the UK company Black Rock Mineral Ventures which held exploration licences for tin, lead, zinc and silver in Britain, also a coal mine at Wrexham, Wales in the early 1980s (2). Black Rock had 30% of a JV with Southwest Consolidated Resources which had several mining prospects in Cornwall, Devon and Wales (1).
In 1989, Vam "changed direction" (4) when the Pan Ocean group sold its 58.77% holding in the company to Mt. Gipps Ltd. The latter company and Vam then combined their gold and antimony interests into the Hillgrove JV.
Vam's subsidiary in Hillgrove, New England Antimony Mines, supplies 2% of the western world's antimony (4).
Vam also owns 49.6% of Perseverance Corporation (in which Rothschild Australia has a minority stake) (5). In 1991, battle royal was joined between Vam and minority shareholders of Perseverance, as the latter tried to increase their stake in Perseverance, at Vam's expense (6). At the same time, the London-listed mining company Butte Mining, with interests in Montana (USA) and Staffordshire (England) was trying to take over both Vam and Perseverance in order to amalgamate the two companies into a medium-sized group (7). By April 1991, Butte had secured more than 95% of Vam (6).
SOURCE: "The Gulliver File - Mines, people and land: a global battleground" by Roger Moody.
Published in 1992 by Minewatch, 218 Liverpool Road, London Nl ILE, UK, and WISE-Glen Aplin, Po Box 87, Glen Aplin Q 4381, Australia.
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