Emergent had recently agreed to vary the terms of the deal with Beijing China Metallurgical Investment Company (CMIC) which would have seen the Chinese group control 17.5% in the junior after agreeing to subscribe for 8.5 million Emergent shares at 45c per share.
It was also to issue to CMIC 4.3 million options at 27c, with the options converting at 20c on or before September 30.
At the time, Emergent said it would seek to raise an additional $5 million to close the purchase of De Grey’s 20% interest in the project to deliver unfettered title over the tenements into the JV with CMIC.
That money proved harder to raise than previously thought, leading Emergent to vary the terms of its agreement with CMIC in July to allow it to pay that money to De Grey.
The company also varied the agreement with De Grey at the same time, agreeing to pay more up front but dropping the overall sale price.
The new deal would have seen CMIC kick in $5 million to Emergent via the placement of shares and options to CMIC, but the timeline on this has now lapsed.
In a statement, Emergent said it was yet to receive confirmation from CMIC regarding the transfer of these funds, which was expected yesterday, and therefore elected to terminate the JV.
MiningNews.net did attempt to contact Emergent managing director Garry Hemming, but he was unavailable for comment at the time of deadline.
In a statement Hemming said the company was confident of attracting other key strategic partners to the project.
Emergent, having earned 80% in the JV, intends to continue with plans to develop Beyondie into a large-scale, long-term, iron ore mining operation by 2014.
De Grey continues to enjoy a 20% free carried interest through to a decision to mine under the original JV arrangements.
Beyondie has inferred resources of 561 million tonnes grading 27.5% iron, but has an exploration target of between 70Mt and 120Mt grading 52-57% iron, based on a recently discovered, new direct shipping ore haematite iron discovery.
Initial metallurgical testwork has shown its potential to produce a high-grade magnetite concentrate of plus 68% iron, with very low impurities such as aluminium, titanium, phosphorous and sulfur.
Shares in Emergent were down 8% in morning trade to 23c, while shares in De Grey were down 20% to 4c.
