News

April 16, 2008

Metals Exploration Can Go At Runruno Without The Moly, But Would Rather Keep It In

By Rob Davies

Jonathan Beardsworth, chief executive of Metals Exploration, says he looks forward to the day when he can address a Minesite forum and tell the audience his company’s shares are too expensive. But that’s certainly not how it feels right now. His company is capitalised at £20 million and is the 100 per cent owner of the Runruno gold property in the Philippines. Not only does it have a resource of 2.1 million ounces of gold but it also has 37 million pounds of molybdenum as well. There is no doubt in his mind that the project is viable as a stand-alone gold mine. But Jonathan has a concept that could make shareholders a whole lot better off.

The key, he says, lies in the molybdenum content of the orebody. Although it’s only present at an average grade of 0.062% there is the potential to produce it at the rate of two million pounds a year. The attraction of that is twofold. The most obvious impact is to dramatically reduce the operating costs for the gold production from about US$400 an ounce to US$300 an ounce. But the most significant effect would be the ability to use that stream of molybdenum output to secure a life of mine...