Transcription of Finance News Network Interview with Carrick Gold Limited (ASX:CRK) Managing Director, John McKinstryLelde Smits: Hello I’m Lelde Smits for the Finance News Network and joining me today from Carrick Gold Limited
(ASX:CRK) is Managing Director, John McKinstry. John welcome to the RIU Resources Round-up in Melbourne.
John McKinstry: Thank you.
Lelde Smits: Could you start by explaining where Carrick Gold is focused and the extent of your footprint in the region?
John McKinstry: Carrick Gold as the name suggests, we’re gold focused - we’re solely focused around the Kalgoorlie area. To the northeast within an hour of Kalgoorlie, we have our KalNorth project and then to the southwest we have another project called Spargoville.
Lelde Smits: The Company recently proposed a name change to KalNorth Goldmines. Why make the change now?
John McKinstry: Well we feel it’s an appropriate time to look at a name change. The name change to KalNorth better reflects where we’re working, what we’re doing and we think timing wise, as we move into a production phase, it’s the opportune time to make that change - make a break from the past. It is a very different company in many senses and we feel that there’s some good support behind the name change.
Lelde Smits: And when will shareholders get their chance to cast a vote?
John McKinstry: We have a General Meeting organised for 5
th of October and the requirement for a name change is that there be 75 per cent of the votes in favour of a name change.
Lelde Smits: Your flagship project is the KalNorth Goldfield where you are targeting maiden production. How are you progressing?
John McKinstry: Well we will be in production in January next year [2013]. We’re on schedule to do that, we’re in the final throws of all the permitting and getting all the necessary regulatory stuff done. And we’ve got the contractors and various components of the mining getting sorted, in the period through to the end of this year.
Lelde Smits: Carrick recently inked an ore processing deal with Saracen Mineral Holdings
(ASX:SAR). Could you detail the significance of the agreement for Carrick?
John McKinstry: Certainly, well the deal with Saracen means that we will be doing our mining and we will be trucking the ore to their Carosue Dam processing plant. We’re very happy to have that deal done. It’s something that we’ve said for quite a while we were confident about doing and until it actually is done, shareholders may always have that scepticism. But having done it and with the Saracen people being good people to deal with, having a good plant, we’ve both got a need for the ore. So that means that we’ll both be working hard to make sure it works well for both of us and as I said, it’s a very good deal to have done.
Lelde Smits: And John, what level of production do you expect to achieve under the agreement?
John McKinstry: We’re both working on around about the 300,000 tonne per year of ore delivered to their processing plant. We’ll fit in very much with their needs; our ore will actually be blended in with theirs, so there’s no requirement for us to have a certain amount delivered every month. But at the same time, we want to be very much like a regular supplier of ore rather than anything else, so we will essentially work in with their needs.
Lelde Smits: To your financials, Carrick is in the middle of a Rights Issue. How much do you expect to raise?
John McKinstry: It’s a one-for-five Issue, so that means people will be entitled to apply for the one share for every five that they hold. That will raise us approximately $7.3 million if it’s fully subscribed. There is a shortfall facility, so if some people don’t take up their entitlements, then others can apply to take that up. We’re very confident that it’ll be taken up by existing shareholders. Some of the early forms coming in show that people are not only taking up their entitlements, but they are taking up the shortfall as well. So that’s very encouraging early on.
Lelde Smits: And where do you plan to deploy the funds?
John McKinstry: We like to keep up quite a high level of activity. When we do have a lot of exciting stuff to be working on and so rather than go into our shell, we’d like to keep up the level of activity, be quite aggressive on the exploration side. And it’ll also give us that working capital to see the contractors’ mobilised early mining done. But the projects will be in cash flow quite early on, so this is essentially to bridge that gap.
Lelde Smits: Finally John, as Carrick moves to becoming a gold producer at the beginning of next year, what would you like to have achieved by the end of next year?
John McKinstry: Well by the end of next year, we’ll be well and truly settled into being miners and the money we thought we’d make from the production, we see ourselves ploughing back into further development of the KalNorth goldfield. It’s an exciting place to be, it hasn’t seen a lot of exploration for gold and in fact it’s probably better known for nickel. But as we’ve seen, we’re very excited about the area. So we will plough that money back in, showing how big that this goldfield can look and look to forge our own way as a producer in our own right eventually in that area.
Lelde Smits: John McKinstry, thanks for the update to Carrick Gold.
John McKinstry: You’re welcome.
Ends
