Forrest, Turnbull and Wran back iron ore miner Winmar Resources...

Forrest, Turnbull and Wran back iron ore miner Winmar Resources

* Andrew Burrell
* From: The Australian
* February 28, 2011 12:00AM



BILLIONAIRE miner Andrew "Twiggy" Forrest, federal Liberal MP Malcolm Turnbull and former NSW premier Neville Wran are among the heavyweight backers of a Pilbara iron ore explorer that will list on the Australian Securities Exchange today.

It is understood Mr Forrest has tipped $25,000 of his savings into the float of Winmar Resources, which is named after former AFL champion Nicky Winmar.

Mr Forrest, who frequently rejects offers to back fledgling miners, made the "token" investment because Winmar Resources chairman Albert Wong was a colleague at broking firm Intersuisse in the 1990s.

The Winmar deposit is located immediately south of the $US5.4 billion ($5.3bn) Solomon project being developed by Mr Forrest's Fortescue Metals Group.

Mr Forrest's net worth may surge today, but not as a result of his Winmar Resources investment.

Fortescue announced on Friday night it had found a further one billion tonnes of iron ore in the Pilbara, a discovery Mr Forrest is privately describing as a "game changer".

Start of sidebar. Skip to end of sidebar.

End of sidebar. Return to start of sidebar.

The 1.03 billion tonnes of high-grade Brockman ore is in the "inferred" category of Australia's mineral reporting code, which is the least proved up category.

Fortescue said the project, named Nyidinghu, was 35km south of its first mine, Cloudbreak, and would take its total resource portfolio to seven billion tonnes of hematite.

"The proximity of Nyidinghu to Fortescue's existing Chichester Hub mining operations and unique high performance modern infrastructure boosts their collective value significantly," Fortescue said after the market had closed on Friday.

A company owned by Mr Turnbull, the former federal Liberal leader, has invested several hundred thousand dollars in Winmar Resources.

Mr Wran, who has been a business partner of both Mr Turnbull and Mr Wong since retiring from politics, is an investor and a non-executive director.

Sydney-based resource investor and Atlas Iron director David Hannon is also backing the company.

Winmar Resources raised $7 million in its initial public offering after closing oversubscribed.

The company will acquire a 51 per cent holding in the Hamersley Iron project in the Pilbara from Cazaly Iron, a wholly owned subsidiary of ASX-listed Cazaly Resources.

Cazaly will retain a 49 per cent holding and its chief executive, Nathan McMahon, will sit on the board.

The deposit has an inferred resource of 143 million tonnes.

Mr Wong confirmed Mr Forrest had been "kind enough to support an old mate".

But the well-known Sydney investor said he had never bought shares in Fortescue despite being sent the prospectus many years ago.

"I got the prospectus and thought I'd have a look at it later," he said.

"Next thing I knew FMG had listed and it kept going up in price. I've been kicking myself ever since."