News

February 03, 2009

European Goldfields Is Well On Its Way To Becoming A Mid Tier Producer Of Precious And Base Metals

By Charles Wyatt

When Dave Reading took over as chief executive of Aim and Toronto listed European Goldfields about four and a half years ago the company was in a shambles. It had had a succession of directors and was going nowhere. At the beginning of 2004 the resource at the company’s Certej deposit in Romania stood at 3.46 million ounces, after the expenditure of much blood and treasure. At that point the company then raised US$34 million to buy a 30 per cent interest in Greece-focused Hellas Gold. And at the same time it listed on Aim. But all this occurred in almost total silence, as Ed Baer, who was then the chief executive, had made no effort to generate a fan club over here or explain the potential of the Hellas deal.

Once Dave Reading took the reins he made it quite clear that he rated the Greek assets highly. He reckoned that the reason that TVX, the previous owner, had failed to make a success of the Stratoni, Skouries and Olympias projects that came with the Hellas deal was that there was no Greek partner and no constructive relationship with the Greek authorities. So he wasted no time in bringing Dimitrios Koutras on board as chairman. Mr Koutras had been president of Aktor SA for the previous 10 years,...