Our Corporate Finance Associate, Casey Portors, speaks with White Rock Minerals Managing Director, Matt Gill, regarding key highlights of the Company.
The podcast delves into White Rock Minerals' latest ASX announcement; restarting the Morning Star Gold Mine, and the impact that production has on the Company and investors.
White Rock Minerals Limited (ASX: WRM; OTCQX:WRMCF), (‘White Rock’ or ‘the Company’) irecently provided an operational update on progress at the high-grade Morning Star Gold Mine in northeast Victoria as it works towards becoming a gold producer in the next few months.
White Rock’s primary objective at the Morning Star Gold Mine is a low capital cost restart of gold production from multiple reef locations.
The team onsite has done a fantastic job to manage the drilling program at the mine. We have already been able to identify up to five potential mining areas above 9 Level, despite some 500,000 ounces having already been produced from this area. These drill results give us a high level of confidence that the existing Morning Star Gold Mine has the potential to develop into a whole new gold mining operation.
Matt Gill, Managing Director & CEO of White Rock Minerals
The existence of an underground mine with infrastructure already in place (shaft, headframe and winder, dewatering system and off-shaft development), and a gold processing plant already built, offers the Company a quick pathway to gold production. This allows the Company to leapfrog many of the issues associated with a company going from explorer to producer - the time to achieve the necessary approvals and permits, supply chain challenges, ordering and delivering long lead times, and cost inflation and construction risks.
The Company seeks to achieve this by identifying and drilling areas of the dyke with potential to host multiple high-grade gold quartz reefs proximal to existing underground development infrastructure
View the full announcement here.
About White Rock Minerals
White Rock is an ASX-listed, near-stage gold producer and poly-metallic and precious metals explorer. The Company’s objectives are to create and enhance shareholder value through the development of its three key assets: Woods Point Gold Project, Red Mountain and Mt Carrington.
To learn more about White Rock Minerals Limited and the gold sector, subscribe to the Company's Chairman’s List.
Read the Conversation:
Casey Portors:
“I'm here with Matt Gill today, the MD of White Rock Minerals. White Rock Minerals is an ASX listed, near term gold producer with three key assets in tier one mining jurisdictions, being Victoria and New South Wales in Australia and Alaska. Thanks for joining us, Matt.”
Matt Gill:
“Hi Casey. Pleasure to be with you today.”
Casey Portors:
“Let's just jump straight into it. So we are here today to talk about the journey that White Rock's been through over the past few years, and the significance of its most recent announcement to restart production at its Morningstar mine, which was acquired back in August of last year. Matt, did you wanna give a quick background on yourself and your involvement with the company?”
Matt Gill:
“Sure. Look, more than happy to, for your listeners. So I'm a mining engineer. I'm a proud Victorian based here in Ballarat. So, great gold mining center in Australia. I joined White Rock about six years ago. And back then we had just one asset, the Mount Carrington Golden Silver Project in New South Wales.
And since that time, we both acquired the large project that we now have in Alaska called Red Mountain. And last year, as you rightly said, in the introduction, we merged with a company to acquire the Woods Point Gold Project here in Victoria, east of Melbourne. So yeah, quite a journey over the last three years and looking forward to the next part of that journey with our investors and shareholders.”
Casey Portors:
“Yeah, it's definitely been an interesting journey today. I think what the market would like to hear more of, is why investors such as Cresco, HSBC and , Citi CorpU McNally have paid attention and supported the stock on the register to date. Did you wanna give a bit of background into what you think are the key highlights of the company?”
Matt Gill:
“Yes, for sure I can do that. And certainly understanding the investor base I think is important for a shareholder, because that way they can see who else has done their homework on the company. Who else has invested their own money and, and what they think are the opportunities. So certainly you mentioned some of our top shareholders.
And look, our shareholder base is quite broad. Cresco you mentioned are our largest shareholder. They're a Denver based precious metals fund, and they invested into White Rock on the back of our large and highly prospective Red Mountain Project in Alaska, given that that's in the US and they're based in the US.
But interestingly they were also a major shareholder of the company we merged with to acquire the Woods Point Gold Project in Victoria. So they're actually on both sides of the fence. Some of the others that you mentioned are nominees for major shareholders underneath those nominees, HSBC is an example, but within that we've got a couple of funds out of Switzerland.
We've got a group out of Hong Kong. We've got a group out of New York. And we've got a couple of high net worth and you mentioned one based in Sydney. So quite a broad spread of each sea white rock for a variety of opportunities. Alaska, definitely. But also I would like to thank our goal project with significant potential here in Victoria.”
Casey Portors:
“Yep. I think given how the longevity of most of these investors holdings on the register, definitely indicates that they see a lot of potential in White Rock's projects. So that's always great to see in a company. So, moving on, I think while White Rock has three assets, That it's prioritising the main start today is Morning Star and being the Woods Point Gold Project. You've just announced that you're looking to restart the Morning Star mine. Paying particular attention to some specific targets. Did you wanna jump into what the production means for the company and what investors can look out for?”
Matt Gill:
“Yeah, the restarts are very important milestones, I think for any junior company. You know, White Rock listed 12 years ago as a small junior explorer. The last statistics I saw, there's about 800 resource juniors on the ASX. And so a significant milestone for many, for any junior would be being able to go into production and that's what we are focused on and very excited about in the next few months.
So the announcement that we just put out is giving the reader, and also our shareholders a market update on the activities that we've been doing. The Woods Point Gold Project since we acquired it in August. And that includes a description of the areas that we've been drilling, a description of the areas that we've since identified that we can now start to develop to mine.
But also it's got some photographs just to give the reader a bit of a feel for actually what's on the ground rather than just words. And we hope that that will help give the reader a sense of the activities. You know, we are ramping up people. We'll be doubling our workforce as we speak. We're developing two of these four areas that we've identified from our drilling.
We are readying the plant. We should be restarting that with some commissioning material later this month. And yeah, we hope to be, then putting through some, material to produce gold in the next few.”
Casey Portors:
“Another initiative that was undertaken by the company as part of its renewed business strategy was to add further experience at the board level with the appointment of Chairman Peter Mangano. Matt, did you wanna say a few words on Peter?”
Matt Gill:
“Yes. So part of a school junior's role is not only its physical assets, but it's people and, and the board and the board's an important component of any business that an investor should look at. You know, who is actually running the business, what's their experiences, you know, they're the ones that are managing the funds and the finance and the strategy.
And with that, we had two directors in the UK. We were a board of 5. Two of the UK directors, they stepped down, a bit over a month ago, and Peter Lester, along serving chairman, also stepped down and we announced the appointment of Peter Mangano. So new chairman to the White Rock Board. So, uh, Peter is a metallurgist by trade.
But recently been more in the capital markets and business analyst space. So a small board of three, and I think that's appropriate for a small junior. But Peter brings a great depth and breadth of experience and a clean set of eyes, and energy and focus to the business. And I think that's always good to go through that renewal. You know, challenge ourselves. Are we doing the right thing? Is it the right strategy as we move forward?”
Casey Portors:
“Great. Thanks for that, Matt. It was great having you join us today for a short update and looking forward to seeing how the company progresses in the next few months.”
Matt Gill:
“My pleasure. And look forward to giving you another update in due course.”
Casey Portors:
“Thanks everyone. For anyone who'd like to learn more about White Rock Minerals, feel free to contact any of our advisors at Barclay Pearce Capital, or click on the link in the description.”
