Lumena Resources Floats Shares in Hong Kong      

Lumena Resources Corp (HK: 00067) was listed on Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited on June 16th.
   Registered in Cayman Islands, Lumena Resources holds a 90% stake in Sichuan Province Chuanmei Mirabilite Co., Ltd. and 100% in Sichuan Province Chuanmei Special Mirabilite Co., Ltd. through its wholly owned subsidiary Top Promise. Top Promise was founded in 2005 being registered in Hong Kong.
   Chuanmei Mirabilite, established in 1952 in Meishan city, Sichuan province, owns China's largest mirabilite mine. Annual production capacity stood at 1.6 million tons at the end of 2008, the second largest in China. The company makes up for a 23.2% stake in domestic mirabilite market and 11.3% in global market, with a gross profit margin of 40% to 50%, far exceeding global average of less than 20%.
    According to the web site of Meishan's environmental protection bureau, Chuanmei Special Mirabilite's new 1 million t/a plant for purified mirabilite was cleared by the environment watchdog in 2008. The project, at Guangji village, Dongpo district in Meishan city, Sichuan, needs an estimated total investment of RMB190 million.
   Competition in China's mirabilite market has been intensive as there are too many players. Still, Lumena Resources maintains strong growth with net profit annually doubled between 2005 and 2007, reaching RMB22 million, RMB50 million and RMB100 million in the three years respectively. The company posted operating income of nearly RMB100 million in the first quarter of 2008, up 10 fold from RMB9 million the same period a year earlier.
    There have been a number of listed mirabilite makers in China. China Nafine Group Co., Ltd. is the largest with annual anhydrous sodium sulfate production of about 1.6 million tons.
   China holds more than 90% of the world's mirabilite reserves, while Sichuan holds about 45% of China's.
   Lumena raised about HK$1.2 billion through the initial public offering. Net proceeds fell to only about HK$650 million after excluding expenditure. About 65% of the net proceeds, or HK$430 million, will be used to repay overseas bank loans and 13.5%, or HK$88.4 million, will be used to fund the purchase of mining and production equipment for the construction of its Mumashan mine. The remaining 13.5% will be used to acquire more mining rights and to supplement working capital, the company said.
    Lumena Resources Chairman Li Yan holds a 73% interest of the company. Li may play a role in Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery Co., Ltd.'s bid to acquire Hummer, Lumena said. Tengzhong has signed a memorandum of understanding with General Motors Corp for the purchase of Hummer. Tengzhong is machinery equipment supplier for Lumena Resources.