Cleveland, Ohio, US-based metallurgical coal and iron ore pellet producer Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. Thursday announced that it acquired 7,792,000 common shares of Spider Resources Inc. (Spider). Following completion of the purchase, Cliffs Greene B.V. now holds an aggregate of 27,434,500 shares which represents approximately 4.2 percent of the issued common shares on a fully-diluted basis. They were purchased at a weighted average price of CA$.1077 per common share.
The highest price paid Thursday for the purchase of the common shares was CA$0.1350 and the weighted average price was CA$0.1343. Since Cliffs commenced its offer of CA$0.13 in cash per common share on Monday, May 31, 2010, with an expiry date of July 6, 2010 unless extended or withdrawn, no other common shares have been purchased by Cliffs or its affiliates.
As previously reported by SteelOrbis, Cliffs had announced on May 24 that it intends to make takeover bids pursuant to which Cliffs or an affiliate would acquire all of the common shares of KWG Resources Inc. (KWG) and/or Spider. Both companies hold a 26.5 percent stake each in the Big Daddy chromite project in Northern Ontario. The proposition was followed by KWG and Spider entering into a binding letter agreement regarding a proposed merger between the two companies.
Cliffs currently owns a 47 percent interest in the project while Spider and KWG each own 26.5 percent.