Cambrian Mining PLC

Cambrian Mining PLC/ Cambrian Investment Holdings Ltd finances the development of mining companies and mineral exploration, with emphasis on coal, gold/antimony and, more recently, energy projects - including oil shale, the mining of which is claimed to be dirty and destructive.

As of February 2008 Cambrian held:

• 44.1% of Western Canadian Coal Corp
• 100% of Falls Mountain Coal Corp
• 34% of Coal International PLC
• 27.1% of Energybuild Group PLC, a Welsh coal producer in which Coal International plc (qv - see also RAB) holds 23.1 %.) [Hemscott 13 February 2008]
• a stake in Xtract Energy (not to be confused with Xstrata)

Cambrian itself has many prominent direct and indirect shareholders, including AXA SA, FMR, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, BNY and Credit Suisse.

In early 2008, the company was forced to reissue its financial results (previously reported at a £40 million profit) as an operating loss of £4.6 million after investigations by the UK Financial Reporting Review Panel. Cambrian’s share dealings had been suspended in December 2007 because of “mistakes and missing disclosures.” Astonishingly, Cambrian’s board claimed that it “did not think the company’s prospects had been affected by the review or re-issue of the account”! [MJ 22 February 2008].

Then, in April 2008, the company announced plans “to move towards becoming a focused mine operator to take advantage of high commodity prices”; possibly buying the shares in Coal International (qv) that it doesn't own; and selling a number of its smaller holdings over the following few months. These steps would purportedly “leave the company focused on income producing assets, with exposure to commodities that are highly in demand” [Mineweb, 1 April 2008] and transform it from “an investment holding company into an operating mining group…” [MJ 6 June 2008].

Over the following eight months, Cambrian’s financial position failed to improve and, in December 2008, it announced a possible acquisition by Western Canadian Coal of its entire issued, and to-be-issued, share capital. In January 2009, Western Canadian provided a secure loan to Cambrian of US$ 36 million [MJ 2-9 January 2009].