Pretivm Resources Inc. (PVG)

[silver100]

PDAC 2012: Quartermain strikes gold again, 30 years later


http://business.financialpost.com/2012/03/05/quartermain-strikes-gold-again-30-years-later/


When Robert Quartermain meets with investors, he brings along some stunning high-grade drill core from his Brucejack and Snowfield gold projects in British Columbia to show them in person.

“I’ve been in the business 35 years, and only saw anything like this at the Royal Ontario Museum and Red Lake,” the chief executive of Pretium Resources Inc. said in an interview as he held onto the core.

Mr. Quartermain, 56, is best known as the long-running chief executive of Silver Standard Resources Inc. He left that job in early 2010, and then acquired the Brucejack/Snowfield projects from Silver Standard and started Pretium.

The projects had a vast low-grade gold resource when he acquired them, but historical drilling only found a hint of the high-grade. Pretium found the high grade stuff last year after extensive drilling, and the stock has gone berserk ever since – it has more than doubled since November alone, giving Pretium a market value of more than $1.5-billion. The company now plans to spend about US$436-million to build a mine producing 325,000 ounces a year.

Despite his long-standing experience in silver, this is the second time he has worked on a major gold discovery. Thirty years ago, he was at the Hemlo gold camp in Ontario in the early days of that project. “It’s great to be involved in another great gold discovery,” he said.