Fmr Petropavlovsk chairman James Cameron intends to buy Eurasian Resources Group for $5 Bln - Media

ASTANA. April 21 (Interfax) - American businessman James Cameron, former chairman of the board of gold miner Petropavlovsk Plc, intends to acquire up to 100% of the shares of Kazakhstan's Eurasian Resources Group (ERG) for $5 billion, Reuters reported, citing documents in its possession.

The agency said a letter from Cameron to ERG's board of directors stated that the American bank Goldman Sachs was conducting preliminary talks to provide advisory services for the deal.

"The financing will be provided through my own funds, as well as equity capital from other investors in the U.S., and possibly from Australia and the Middle East," Reuters quotes the letter as saying.

Another source close to the deal explained that Cameron's interest in ERG was partly driven by Kazakhstan's potential in the exploration and extraction of critical minerals.

ERG's press service told Interfax that the company was working to verify the information.

ERG, established in 2014 based on the assets of Eurasian National Resources Corporation (ENRC), is registered in Luxembourg. The company includes ferroalloy, iron ore, aluminum, coal, and power generation enterprises in Kazakhstan, controls copper and cobalt assets in Africa, and is implementing an iron ore mining project in Brazil.

ERG's major assets in Kazakhstan include Kazchrome, iron ore miner SSGPO, Aluminium of Kazakhstan, Kazakhstan Aluminium Smelter, Eurasian Energy Corporation, coal miner Shubarkol Komir and TransCom.