Roman Copper Corp, owned by Bayfront Capital Partners, which won the bid to take over Romania's copper mine Cupru Min Abrud for some EUR 200 million does not have the money to pay for the mine and will have to raise funding from private investors. The winner of the bid has seven days to make the payment. If the money is not raised, Roman Copper Corp will lose the EUR 1 million warranty, placed before the bid.

“As the documents presented show, Bayfront Capital Partners will support Roman Copper to finance the acquisition of Cupru Min and its debts with support from investors in Canada, Europe and the US,” according to Romania's Economy Ministry. The Romanian state has not made it mandatory for the winner of the bid to make investments in the copper mine. Mineco group, which won the bid for the Moldomin copper mine in Romania, will have to invest at least EUR 50 million.

BayFront Capital Partners Ltd. is an investment banking boutique with a specific focus on advising and raising capital for private and small cap companies, targeting metals and mining, energy, agriculture, technology and biotechnology sectors. Its recent transactions include USD 14 million private placement for Armistice Resources Corp., USD 8 million private placement for Royal Standard Minerals Inc., and USD 10 million structured debt for Huldra Silver Inc. Its highest private placement so far was of USD 32 million, for Petaquilla Minerals Ltd., well below the EUR 200 million target for the Romanian copper mine.

Roman Copper Corp beat off Australian OZ Minerals, Bulgarian Ellatzite-Med AD and Dundee Holding from the Netherlands in the bid for copper mine Cupru Min Abrud in Romania. The Bulgarian firm was disqualified just before the start of the bid. The starting price in the bid on Monday morning ( March 26 ) was EUR 57.3 million.

Cupru Min Abrud has estimated reserves of 900,000 tonnes of copper at Rosia Poieni. However, only a small amount of of it can be extracted every year. The investor needs to pay a royalty on copper extracted, of 4 to 6 percent, to the Romanian state. Romania's Cupru Min ended 2011 with EUR 37.9 million in sales, 41 percent above the 2010 level, and a single functional production line of the existing four.

The price of copper was of USD 8,400 a ton in February this year, and analysts expect prices over USD 9,000 a ton in the second half of the year.

editor@romania-insider.com