News

January 19, 2009

Crew Gold Is Taking A Large Bet On The LEFA Gold Mine After Other Operations Were Scaled Back Last Year

By Charles Wyatt

When Rob Davies last wrote about Toronto and Oslo listed Crew Gold Corporation back in June 2008 it was clear that several things were amiss. For a start, at that stage the company had three gold mines in different parts of the world, and none of them were performing to scratch. It is difficult enough to run one mine in one country, but when you have one in Greenland, one in West Africa and the other in the Philippines, life can get pretty tricky. This was evident from the fact that only 61,000 ounces of gold were produced in the first quarter of 2008, an output which was only about half of what it should have been, given that the target had been set at an annual 500,000 ounces. The other problem that Rob ran into when he was putting his article together last summer was in getting anyone to give an explanation. This was especially odd, as the then chief executive, Jan Vestrum, had always been very helpful in keeping Minesite up to speed.

It therefore did not come as a total surprise when the company announced in August that Jan had left the company with immediate effect. William LeClair, the chief financial officer, stepped up as interim chief executive while the company sought out a successor for Jan. The search still seems to be going on. Cameron Belsher, the chairman, was gracious in his farewell to Jan, saying, “since Mr. Vestrum assumed the chief executive officer position in 2002, Crew has been transformed from a small...