FINNAUST MINING PLC ORD 0.01P (LON:FAM) Managing Director Roderick McIllree caught up with DirectorsTalk for an exclusive interview to discuss the Pituffik Work Programme Update
Q1: Now Rod, 2016 was a big year, would you mind recalling the key developments for listeners?
A1: Sure. Well look Giles, it’s fairly easy for people to go back to the 2015 Notice of Meeting and get a sense of what we said we were going to do, I think one of the key aspects of that is that we did lay out a pretty clear agenda and timetable for those activities. Generally speaking I think we’ve done pretty well, we’ve met all the objectives we set ourselves and I think the results of these work programmes that we put in place have borne out the reasons for the acquisition so I think completing the acquisition was the first part, that was a very important part of the overall process. The work programme for 2016 was very sophisticated in terms of the logistics and the activities and the results that they generated so I think that, coupled with the acquisition of Avannaa towards the end of the year, even though that was completed over the Christmas period, I think what it all does do is sets the company up for a very good platform to start 2017.
Q2: Now the resource statement is a big milestone for the company, you mentioned the resource in today’s RNS but is there anything that you can add to this?
A2: The Pituffik area is quite expansive and I guess the work during 2016 season focussed in and around the Moriusaq area which for all intents and purposes will be the area with which we start our processing. I think it was in the vicinity of 260 auger holes over, in and around that area, we hope to have that resource statement on in late February, early March period, the analytical work that goes into those resource calculations is underway, hopefully fairly shortly be finished. We’d just like to reiterate our guidance on the resource, I’m comfortable that it’s going to be a number that sort of sets us quite well within the peer group so shareholders should wait and see what that says but I think it’ll be ok.
Q3: Now sitting back and looking at the company achievements and the timelines, I have to say that it’s really remarkable that you’ve been able to achieve all that you have for such a very small cost really. What’s your secret?
A3: Probably secrets I guess Giles, it’s a number of things. First and foremost, I think I and my team are fairly competent in Greenland, we’ve, to a certain extent, made our mistakes previously and we understand the logistical chains that need to be adhered to in Greenland. It’s very important to do things once and do them properly because you find time and time again if you’ve got to do them twice it ends up costing you three times as much so getting it right in Greenland, having that depth and experience to operate up there is certainly first and foremost.
I think the second point really comes back to the people that we use, our service providers, also very competent, Greenlandic operators, especially the Danish Geological Survey or the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland, having access to these guys and their equipment gives us a huge competitive advantage with respect to these kinds of work programmes. If you look at what we did achieve during the 2016 field season you can sort of see that that whole work programme, by and large, was probably no more than £550,000 worth of actual executed work on the ground, now given its location and the type of work it was and the equipment and the people involved it’s not unreasonable to think that anyone else trying that from a first start point of view you could almost add a zero to the end of the costs of those kinds of work programmes. So, the final point being I guess is because, and this is a point that I’ve been banging on about with you and others for 12 or 18 months, is the management and directors of FinnAust Mining PLC ORD 0.01P are very big shareholders so we’re very conscious of cost and dilution and these kinds of things. So, I think that’s proving to be true, we’re talking the talk and we’re walking the walk so I think that’ll continue into this year, I kind of expect several positive things to fall out of this year leading into the start up in 2018 so time will tell.
