TRANSCRIPTION OF FINANCE NEWS NETWORK INTERVIEW WITH COMMISSIONERS GOLD LIMITED (ASX:CGU) MANAGING DIRECTOR, ROBERT McCAULEY
Joining me today from junior gold explorer Commissioners Gold, to discuss its projects and listing is Managing Director, Rob McCauley. Rob welcome to FNN, could you start by introducing Commissioners Gold?
Robert McCauley: At Commissioners Gold we have a portfolio of leases that cover five areas of New South Wales. We’re entirely gold focused and we’re looking at exploiting modern day technology to look at the older leases that we’ve had - these older areas of New South Wales that have been generally under explored since discoveries in the nineteenth century.
Where are your tenements and what’s their prospectivity?
Robert McCauley: Our tenements are in 5 different areas as I said. In Cowarra just north of Cooma where we have a 37,000 ounce JORC Resource, Mongarlowe which is north of Braidwood not far from Dargues Reef; we also have a tenement north of Oberon, Black Bullock where there’s a conceptual resource of 200,000 ounces gold.
And we also have an area east of Cootamundra, the old Muttama gold fields, which is adjacent to the Christmas Gift area of which Cortona is an owner there; and also lastly Dalton which is north of Gunning, which is a highly prospective area as well.
Okay now you operate in New South Wales exclusively, what can you tell us about gold production in the State?
Robert McCauley: Well gold production in New South Wales a lot of people wouldn’t realise, but is equal to if not slightly greater than that of Western Australia. The Cowal gold mine that Barrick has near West Wyalong and the other big one that Newcrest has at Cadia, do produce well in excess of a couple of million ounces gold per year.
So the Lachlan Fold Belt is a very prospective area and I think a lot of people have sort of forgotten about New South Wales, and that’s where Commissioners Gold has come into acquire these tenements at very good value for shareholders.
Okay and what about the prospects for discovery?
Robert McCauley: Well the prospect for discovery is good because there’s an old saying in exploration, “nearology” is a very good way to be and we’re very near and on top of, 5 very good prospective areas.
Thanks Rob, now can you tell us about your Cowarra Project?
Robert McCauley: The Cowarra Project goes back into the late nineteenth century and following that it was rediscovered by BHP. And they mined there during the Second World War producing over 20,000 ounces. Subsequent to that Horizon Pacific produced 30 odd thousand ounces in the eighties.
Okay now given you have a JORC Compliant Resource of 37,000 ounces, what stage is the Project at now and when do you expect to be in production?
Robert McCauley: Look we hope to be in production within 2 to 3 years max. We’ve got several areas on our tenements where we could bring something on line earlier, such as at Dalton with a small scale open cut operation. But also bulk sampling at Cowarra, we’re talking 10,000 tonne bulk sample there to produce 7 odd thousand ounces, and you know subsequent to our Stage 1 drilling, that could be as early as 18 months away.
Okay, now what’s the likelihood of an upgrade to the Resource or further discovery?
Robert McCauley: Within Cowarra the likelihood is very good. If you look at the historical numbers, they’re in excess of half an ounce a tonne or more, which is 15 grams. So at the moment we are grading below that, so one would expect that with further drilling and whatnot to bring it in line with historical averages, that that upgrade should come our way.
Okay and now to your Oberon Project, what have you found there?
Robert McCauley: Well at Oberon we’ve found that there’s – and there’s been almost 4,000 metres of drilling done there over the past 5 years, including with our joint partner Central West Gold. And we’ve found there that there’s a conceptual model there, where we would have in excess of 200,000 ounces gold. So this is something that we’re looking at and we’re targeting with further drilling, so we can prove that up and get the spacing right for a JORC Compliant Resource.
Thanks Rob and now to your listing on the ASX, how many shares are being offered and at what price?
Robert McCauley: The maximum number of shares on offer is 22.5 million shares at 20 cents to raise $4.5 million.
And what will that value the Company?
Robert McCauley: Well on completion of that, that’ll value the Company a market capitalisation of 9 million. We would expect to have 4.5 to 5 million because we already have some cash at the moment in the bank, which basically gives the Company an enterprise value of around 4.5 to 5 million.
Great. Okay well when do you expect to list and who’s handling the IPO?
Robert McCauley: We expect to list in early June, Novus Capital are the sponsoring brokers and all go well, yeah we should hope to have maximum subscription by end of May early June, and listing soon afterwards.
Last question. Where do you expect Commissioners Gold to be 6 to 12 months from now?
Robert McCauley: Presupposing drilling results and resource upgrades come along as we expect it to happen and also the trend of gold continuing, which we believe is the case. We would expect Commissioners to be well and truly north of 35 to 40 cents in 12 months from now.
Rob McCauley thanks for the introduction and good luck with the float.
Robert McCauley: Thank you.
ENDS
