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Cambrian Mining has made £15 million on selling out of Mount Gibson Iron and has upped its Coal International stake.

AIM-quoted Cambrian, which turned losses into a £40 million pre-tax profit in the year to June by the well-timed disposal of shares in Asia Energy, received 110 million shares in Australia's Mount Gibson when the iron ore group launched a bid for Aztec Resources, another Cambrian investee company. Now, the agreement to sell the stake should bring in the equivalent of £40 million, for a pre-tax profit on the sale of £14.75 million.

Meanwhile, London-based Cambrian, headed by entrepreneurial Australian chief executive officer John Byrne, has agreed to increase its loan facility for another investee, West Virginia-based Coal International, from £8.2 million to £13.5 million and to convert this into shares at 60p. The deal, if approved by Coal International shareholders, will give Cambrian a majority stake.

Byrne claims Coal International, whose shares have halved in a year to 51p, and another Cambrian company, Western Canadian Coal, could together achieve annual earnings of £50 million before interest, tax and depreciation — and will pay worthwhile dividends. Cambrian, which also has a significant stake in oil shale play Xtract Energy, is pursuing a strategy of 'get all or get out', he suggests.

Some also detect an opportunistic thread in Cambrian's approach. They note, for example, that much of the Asia Energy holding was sold at 645p before political opposition to that company's Phulbari open-cast coal project hit the shares, now trading at 112p.

Cambrian shares were star performers after their 2003 float at 30p, reaching 225p early last year. They have since tracked back to 131.5p, where their appeal is speculative.