Australian mining magnate Ken Talbot and other mining executives were among nine people missing after their plane was lost in West Africa, officials said.
Those on the charted plane, missing since Saturday, include the entire board of Sundance Resources Ltd. , a Western Australian mining company, and Queensland mining magnate Ken Talbot, who founded MacArthur Coal and has a 16 percent stake in Sundance, The Australian reported.
The plane had been travelling from Yaounde in Cameroon to Yangadou in the Republic of Congo.
Sundance said the flight also was carrying the company's chairman, Geoff Wedlock; its chief executive, Don Lewis; directors Craig Oliver and John Jones; company secretary John Carr-Gregg; Talbot's executive secretary, Natasha Flason; and two other passengers whose background and nationality were unknown.
The Australian said the group was heading to the Mbalam iron ore project, under development in the
Congo.
Sundance Resources said it will request the Australian Stock Exchange put a trading halt on the
company's stocks before Monday trading opens.
Talbot, one of Australia's richest people, has a net worth of at least $965 million, the newspaper said.