EurOmax: Key player in the Balkans trims fat and zooms in on value-drivers
www.euromaxresources.com • 604.669.5999
Mark Gustafson
President & CEO
"Transition year," could be defined as a year for maturity and development, and for EurOmax Resources Ltd (TSXV: EOX), 2010 could very well be that year. Aside from appointing a new board of directors and management team, the company reviewed and streamlined its portfolio of properties and future prospects and became a nimbler company in the process. President and CEO Mark Gustafson discusses with Resource Intelligence how the change has allowed EurOmax to focus on its most important value-drivers.
Resource Intelligence: EurOmax announced a revision in its business strategy in November 2010. What was the reason behind that?
Mark Gustafson: Since the new board was elected on September 23, 2010 we listened to our shareholders' views on all the EurOmax properties. Some of the properties that were considered "core properties" in fact did not have the technical support so we dropped them. We also decided to adopt a strategy to continue exploring properties in the Balkans only and to add JV partners at the appropriate time.
RI: Can you say that you're now a more streamlined company and how does that add value
to EurOmax?
MG: Our shareholders now know exactly what our core properties are. We have five of them and three of them are major. Dropping the other properties allows us to focus our technical team and our financial resources on the core properties. It also forces us to take steps to establish a formal resource base through 43-101 reports and additional exploration.
RI: Let's talk about those core properties. You have world-class gold and copper deposits. Could you tell us more?
MG: We have three potential world-class properties. We own one property outright, Trun, our Bulgarian gold property, and the other two copper-gold properties (KMC and Ilovitza) are under option from an international mining company. For Trun in particular, we have announced an inferred resource of 91.2 million tonnes at a grade of 0.70 g/t Au for 2.1 million ounces of contained gold. Trun is a pure-gold property and has several additional exploration targets, which we will pursue in 2011. The KMC project in Serbia may have significant scope to it, with gold skarns, copper-gold skarns and potential porphyry. The Ilovitza project in Macedonia is one that we are actually drilling today. There was a 43-101 report from 2 years ago, which showed about 300 million tonnes with a 0.23% copper grade and 0.32 g/t gold. We'll combine the results of all the drilling we're doing now with the earlier data and release an updated 43-101 report on that too. So that is the evidence of those potential world-class gold and gold/copper deposits.
RI: Aside from those numbers you just mentioned, what else should investors look at when they consider the projects?
MG: We believe that there are a couple of ways that investors are going to look at our company based on the new exploration strategy that we adopted in November. Our job is to bring the prospects into the company, explore them and try to advance them to a point where we can establish a credible resource through a 43-101 report or bring a partner on board to advance them further.
RI: Many investors may be unfamiliar with the Balkans, is this a stalbe and mine friendly region?
MG: Absolutely – there have been a lot of positive changes over the past 10-20 years. Bulgaria belongs to the EU, Serbia is on its way to becoming a member, and Macedonia is looking at becoming a member as well. Bulgaria is very stable and Serbia is a good place to do business also. Macedonia is still building its infrastructure, however, we have been very well received there. Of course all of these countries welcome responsible economic development, especially from a Canadian company.
RI: How many years have you been there?
MG: The company has been there since 2004 and has been very active over the past six years. There is a continuous flow of information between our company and the government particularly in Bulgaria.
RI: Looking at your finances, are you in better shape now?
MG: We are now. Our finances were a bit low in late 2010 but now we are fully funded for our 2011 exploration plans.
RI: You don't plan to see any of these projects into production. What value does EurOmax immediately provide to investors now?
MG: The investors are going to see independently quoted resource numbers for our properties, and then they will start to see the announcements as partners start to come on board.
RI: Where do you see EurOmax in three to five years?
MG: We believe that three to five years from now you will see EurOmax as a dominant player in the Balkans. There should be a number of projects that are in various stages of development. EurOmax will become the go-to exploration company in Southeastern Europe.
RI: Is there anything else that you think investors should know about EurOmax?
MG: 2010 was a transition year for the company and 2011 is the year we start to demonstrate growth and increasing shareholder value.
Investor Highlights:
Mark Gustafson
President & CEO
"Transition year," could be defined as a year for maturity and development, and for EurOmax Resources Ltd (TSXV: EOX), 2010 could very well be that year. Aside from appointing a new board of directors and management team, the company reviewed and streamlined its portfolio of properties and future prospects and became a nimbler company in the process. President and CEO Mark Gustafson discusses with Resource Intelligence how the change has allowed EurOmax to focus on its most important value-drivers.
Resource Intelligence: EurOmax announced a revision in its business strategy in November 2010. What was the reason behind that?
Mark Gustafson: Since the new board was elected on September 23, 2010 we listened to our shareholders' views on all the EurOmax properties. Some of the properties that were considered "core properties" in fact did not have the technical support so we dropped them. We also decided to adopt a strategy to continue exploring properties in the Balkans only and to add JV partners at the appropriate time.
RI: Can you say that you're now a more streamlined company and how does that add value
to EurOmax?
MG: Our shareholders now know exactly what our core properties are. We have five of them and three of them are major. Dropping the other properties allows us to focus our technical team and our financial resources on the core properties. It also forces us to take steps to establish a formal resource base through 43-101 reports and additional exploration.
RI: Let's talk about those core properties. You have world-class gold and copper deposits. Could you tell us more?
MG: We have three potential world-class properties. We own one property outright, Trun, our Bulgarian gold property, and the other two copper-gold properties (KMC and Ilovitza) are under option from an international mining company. For Trun in particular, we have announced an inferred resource of 91.2 million tonnes at a grade of 0.70 g/t Au for 2.1 million ounces of contained gold. Trun is a pure-gold property and has several additional exploration targets, which we will pursue in 2011. The KMC project in Serbia may have significant scope to it, with gold skarns, copper-gold skarns and potential porphyry. The Ilovitza project in Macedonia is one that we are actually drilling today. There was a 43-101 report from 2 years ago, which showed about 300 million tonnes with a 0.23% copper grade and 0.32 g/t gold. We'll combine the results of all the drilling we're doing now with the earlier data and release an updated 43-101 report on that too. So that is the evidence of those potential world-class gold and gold/copper deposits.
RI: Aside from those numbers you just mentioned, what else should investors look at when they consider the projects?
MG: We believe that there are a couple of ways that investors are going to look at our company based on the new exploration strategy that we adopted in November. Our job is to bring the prospects into the company, explore them and try to advance them to a point where we can establish a credible resource through a 43-101 report or bring a partner on board to advance them further.
RI: Many investors may be unfamiliar with the Balkans, is this a stalbe and mine friendly region?
MG: Absolutely – there have been a lot of positive changes over the past 10-20 years. Bulgaria belongs to the EU, Serbia is on its way to becoming a member, and Macedonia is looking at becoming a member as well. Bulgaria is very stable and Serbia is a good place to do business also. Macedonia is still building its infrastructure, however, we have been very well received there. Of course all of these countries welcome responsible economic development, especially from a Canadian company.
RI: How many years have you been there?
MG: The company has been there since 2004 and has been very active over the past six years. There is a continuous flow of information between our company and the government particularly in Bulgaria.
RI: Looking at your finances, are you in better shape now?
MG: We are now. Our finances were a bit low in late 2010 but now we are fully funded for our 2011 exploration plans.
RI: You don't plan to see any of these projects into production. What value does EurOmax immediately provide to investors now?
MG: The investors are going to see independently quoted resource numbers for our properties, and then they will start to see the announcements as partners start to come on board.
RI: Where do you see EurOmax in three to five years?
MG: We believe that three to five years from now you will see EurOmax as a dominant player in the Balkans. There should be a number of projects that are in various stages of development. EurOmax will become the go-to exploration company in Southeastern Europe.
RI: Is there anything else that you think investors should know about EurOmax?
MG: 2010 was a transition year for the company and 2011 is the year we start to demonstrate growth and increasing shareholder value.
Investor Highlights:
- World-class gold and copper deposits and properties
- Technical team comprised of experts with very strong following in the exploration and mining community
- Focus on Southeastern Europe gives EurOmax the leading edge in terms of a continuous flow of prospects
Source...