Looks like approval is in the bag, so if Ivanhoe want to make a...

Looks like approval is in the bag, so if Ivanhoe want to make a stand, they are going to have to make a bid.

http://www.tdwaterhouse.co.uk/NewsPage.aspx?newsID=138501958136875

DJ Exco: 47% Of Shareholders Back Cloncurry Sale To Xstrata

By David Fickling

Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

SYDNEY (Dow Jones)--Gold and copper developer Exco Resources Ltd. (EXS.AU) is confident it will get shareholder support for its A$175 million sale of two copper tenements in northern Queensland to Anglo-Swiss miner Xstrata PLC (XTA.LN), the company's managing director said Wednesday.

Michael Anderson said the company canvased its shareholders and believes it has received approval from 47% of shareholders, with a bare majority of 50% plus one vote needed for the sale to go ahead.

Exco's largest shareholder, Ivanhoe Australia Ltd. (IVA.AU), on Wednesday threw a spanner in the planned sale by withholding its backing for the deal and saying all cash raised should be returned directly to shareholders.

Ivanhoe holds 22.8% of Exco, and another major shareholder--Singapore-based iron ore trader Sin-Tang Development Pte. Ltd.--also bitterly clashed with Xstrata last year during its takeover of Mauritania-focused iron ore developer Sphere Minerals Ltd. (SPH.AU).

But Anderson said that was unlikely to stand in the way of the sale.

"Ivanhoe are entitled to their opinion but we have to make objective decisions for all our shareholders," said Anderson in an interview with Dow Jones Newswires. "We've extensively consulted all our shareholder base."

Asked if he was prepared to accept Ivanhoe's condition of returning cash from the sale to shareholders, he said it wouldn't suit the company's plans: "We want to take this company forward to grow from an organic asset base and to look for potential acquisition opportunities."

The Cloncurry tenements are just 8 kilometers east of Xstrata's Ernest Henry mine, and Xstrata plans them to be integrated into the mine's production from the second half of next year.

The deposits, titled E1 and Monakoff, have a combined resource of 401,000 metric tons of copper and 384,000 ounces of gold, Xstrata said.

Other alternatives to develop the deposits, including discussions last year with Sin-Tang, have now lapsed and the sale is the best option for the deposit, Anderson said. "This is the only transaction that was on the table."