News

October 01, 2008

Goldplat Makes Recovery A Profitable Business, As It Looks Ahead To Becoming A Fully-Fledged Gold Miner

By Alastair Ford

“The value that we humans place in gold in difficult times will never be replaced”. So says Demetri Manolis, chief executive of Goldplat, the African-focussed company that backs its exploration and development projects with a gold recycling business. If he’s right, the future looks bright for Goldplat, even as the rest of the world goes to hell on a handcart. During the year to 30th June 2008 Goldplat delivered sales of £7.7 million on the production of gold and other precious metals from its operations recycling mining waste in South Africa and Ghana, and profits of £1.6 million. That was more than double the profits delivered by the company this time last year, and although detail on exactly how the revenue splits out between the various operations was a bit thin on the ground, most of it comes from South Africa, where the company says that although operations are “mature”, business is nonetheless “buoyant”.

Lest we remain too unimpressed by the new strand of the business over in West Africa, Demetri Manolis is quick to emphasise that “the recovery plant in Ghana is doing very well”. Indeed the whole recovery business is growing, and Mr Manolis doesn’t rule out adding further recycling projects elsewhere on the continent. The aim, he says, is for Goldplat to be a “junior mining house, mining gold in Africa. Until I die I will be saying the same thing”. So far the cash flow has been all about...