Cluff Gold (CLG in London): Algy Cluff's Remarks
Cluff fully funded and ready to go
By: Gareth Tredway
Posted: '26-JUL-06 22:00' GMT © Mineweb 1997-2006
JOHANNESBURG (Mineweb.com) -- Juniors are really scouts for the large mining companies with little chance of a long-term future, declared one of Africa’s most successful mining tycoons Algy Cluff yesterday, as he unveiled targets for his latest gold mine in the West Africa.
For about forty years, Cluff has been involved in mining ventures, with amazing success.
His claims to fame included the discovery of the Freda Rebecca mine in Zimbabwe and Geita in Tanzania, currently a star performer amongst AngloGold Ashanti’s assets. He also went on to list Cluff Mining in 2000, which has since changed to Ridge Mining, a platinum explorer on South Africa’s Bushveld Complex, host of the large majority of the world’s platinum.
Cluff says there are fewer opportunities available than there were 10-15 years ago and that takeovers are commonplace. “The depressing fact is that the junior mining companies really are scouts for the big companies, unfortunately they are not paid by the big companies to be scouts. Very few have metamorphosed from being juniors into substantial companies because most of them get mugged on the way.”
Cluff’s most recent mining venture, is less than a year away from its first gold, only two years after his company Cluff Gold was formed.
In an interview with Mineweb, Cluff said it could take as little as six months to bring the Angovia project in the DRC online as it is a brownfields operation with an existing plant.
The company is aiming for 300,000 ounces of annualized production by 2008, and Cluff reckons that by the end of next year its two mines should be producing about 100,000 ounces a year.
Funding is not a problem after the company successfully raised £15.4 million in March through US based, BMO Nesbitt Burns. Cluff says Angovia has a capital cost of about $11 million. “So we do not need to go to the banks and wear our trousers out at the knees,” he adds.
RMB, a South African bank, is already conducting due diligence for possible project finance on the company’s Burkina Faso project. Cluff says he expects some answers by September. Some sort of hedging will probably be required on production using this funding method.
According to Cluff, a much larger project is the Baomahun project in Sierra Leone. “It is evolving into a very interesting ore body by international reference,” He said.
Cluff describes West Africa as one of the best places to do business, although he does still have an attraction for Tanzania. “What you have to try and do is find a part of the world that not only has good geology which is obviously one’s real imperative, but that also has governments that not only have need for investment but also have want for an investment.”
“Those sorts of criteria apply in very few parts of the world nowadays; they certainly do not apply in China or Russia or in many other parts of the world I can name.”
