Friday, April 18, 2008
Providential Holdings, Inc., a company providing advisory, merger and acquisition services as well as independently investing in Vietnamese economic opportunities, today announced that its wholly owned subsidiary, IndoChina Mining Corp. (IMC), has entered an agreement with Phu Yen Mineral Joint Stock Company (Pymico) to create a joint venture in a diatomite mine in Phu Yen Province. According to this agreement, IMC will own 49% of the joint venture, Indochina Mining Joint Venture, and acquire 30% of Pymico.
Indochina Mining Joint Venture will mine diatomite, or diatomaceous earth (DE), a material having a wide array of applications such as: industrial, filtration, abrasion, absorption, pest control, thermal, hydroponics, and DNA purification. Pymico has estimated that the mine holds mineralized material of approximately 2 million tons.
President and CEO of Pymico, Sinh Van Luong, said, "Our joint venture with IndoChina Mining Corp. will increase the company's technological capabilities and enable us to mine DE more effectively. New uses are currently being explored for this mineral and the demand for it will increase. IMC's acquisition of a stake in Pymico will solidify our long-term relationship as we work together on this project and others in the near future."
Tai Vo, director of IndoChina Mining Corp., said, "This agreement represents our first acquisition of an important stake in a non-metal mining company in Southeast Asia. It is also just the beginning of our mining activities, and we believe Pymico is an ideal partner. DE is a natural resource that can be used in many different applications. We estimate that, at a current price of approximately $700 a ton of DE, this mine has the potential to be very lucrative. This is a great opportunity for emerging growth and we plan to continue looking for different venues for mining materials in Southeast Asia."
About IndoChina Mining Corp.
IndoChina Mining Corp., a wholly owned subsidiary of Providential Holdings (PHI), plans to take majority and minority stakes in precious and non-metal mines in Southeast Asia. Headquartered in Vietnam, the company's strategy includes establishing joint ventures to explore and mine for metals in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.
About Phu Yen Mineral Joint Stock Company
Phu Yen Mineral Joint Company is headquartered in Phu Yen District in Vietnam and has been operating since 1991. The company mines fluorite, ilmenite and diatomite, and uses them to produce construction brick, construction stone, additive cement (Puzoland) and aquaculture products. For more information, visit http://pymico.com.vn
About Providential Holdings, Inc.
Providential Holdings and its subsidiaries engage in a number of diverse business activities, the most important of which are M&A advisory services and investing in the rapidly growing economies of Vietnam and Asia. As part of its activities in Vietnam, Providential has been hosting seminars in conjunction with the Nasdaq Stock Market, the Vietnamese Chamber of Commerce and Industry and leading U.S. investment banking firms, to help Vietnamese companies go public and raise capital through the U.S. financial markets. For more information on Providential Holdings, visit http://www.phiglobal.com.
A profile for investors can be accessed at http://www.hawkassociates.com/profile/prvh.cfm.
For investor relations questions regarding Providential, contact Antonella Montagna or Frank Hawkins, Hawk Associates, at 305-451-1888, e-mail: Providential.Holdings@hawkassociates.com or visit http://www.americanmicrocaps.com or http://www.hawkassociates.com. To sign up for free e-mail notification of future releases, visit http://www.hawkassociates.com/about/alert.
Safe Harbor: This news release contains forward-looking statements that are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those projected on the basis of such forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements are made based upon management's beliefs, as well as assumptions made by, and information currently available to, management pursuant to the "safe-harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.