FOCUS MINERALS LTD Audio Webcast

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INTEC LTD (INL)	INL - 2008 Annual General Meeting - Mr Philip Wood, MD & CEO Tue, 18 Nov 2008 05:30PM
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FOCUS MINERALS LTD (FML)

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FOCUS MINERALS LTD (FML) Events

Company (Stock Code)	Date/Time	Event	Timezone: Australia/NSW
FOCUS MINERALS LTD (FML)	Fri, 24 Oct 2008 11:50AM	FML - September 2008 Quarterly Report - Mr Chuck McCormick, Business Development Manager and Mr Darren Gibcus, General Manager - Gold Operations
FOCUS MINERALS LTD (FML)	Wed, 8 Oct 2008 10:00AM	FML - CEO Profile - Peter Williams, CEO
FOCUS MINERALS LTD (FML)	Fri, 3 Oct 2008 12:30PM	FML - Resource Rising Stars - Peter Williams, MD
FOCUS MINERALS LTD (FML)	Mon, 15 Sep 2008 11:00AM	FML - Excellence in Mining and Exploration Presentation - Mr Peter Williams, MD
FOCUS MINERALS LTD (FML) Production Continues on Schedule	Mon, 1 Sep 2008 12:30PM	FML - Shareholder Update - Mr Peter Williams, MD
FOCUS MINERALS LTD (FML)	Tue, 6 May 2008 05:00PM	Focus Minerals Limited Corporate Video
FOCUS MINERALS LTD (FML) Focus: 100% ownership of Coolgardie Gold Project	Fri, 2 May 2008 10:30AM	FML - March 2008 Quarterly Activities Report - Mr Peter Williams, MD
FOCUS MINERALS LTD (FML)	Tue, 15 Apr 2008 03:15PM	FML - Increased Perseverance Reserve as Mining Commences - Mr Peter Williams, MD
FOCUS MINERALS LTD (FML)	Tue, 25 Nov 2008 06:00PM 03:00PM Australia/West	Annual General Meeting Hannan's Club, 44 Brookman St, Kalgoorlie, WA
FOCUS MINERALS LTD (FML)	Tue, 21 Oct 2008	Full Year Results
FOCUS MINERALS LTD (FML)	Fri, 14 Mar 2008	Interim Results
FOCUS MINERALS LTD (FML)	Tue, 20 Nov 2007 02:00PM	Annual General Meeting Pacific International Hotel, Grand Pacific Room 2, 305 Murray St Perth WA 6000
FOCUS MINERALS LTD (FML)	Wed, 14 Mar 2007	Interim Results
FOCUS MINERALS LTD (FML)	Mon, 29 Jan 2007	Quarterly Production Date
FOCUS MINERALS LTD (FML)	Tue, 14 Nov 2006 02:00PM	Annual General Meeting The Hannan's Club, 44 Brookman Street Kalgoorlie WA
FOCUS MINERALS LTD (FML)	Thu, 16 Mar 2006	Interim Results
FOCUS MINERALS LTD (FML)	Wed, 30 Nov 2005 09:00AM 06:00AM Australia/West	Annual General Meeting
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FOCUS MINERALS LTD (FML)

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INTERVIEW WITH PETER WILLIAMS, MANAGING DIRECTOR OF FOCUS MINERALS LTD (FML)

“FML - Shareholder Update - Mr Peter Williams, MD”

http://www.brr.com.au/event/50464

 

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 1 2008, 12:30 PM.

 

            BRR    Today on Boardroom Radio, we’re joined by Mr. Peter Williams, the Managing Director of Focus Minerals. Peter, welcome back to Boardroom

10                    Radio.

            FML     Thanks for having me again, Joel.

 

            BRR    Peter, the last time we spoke soon after your Maiden Gold Pour at Coolgardie, since then plenty has happened, could you perhaps update our

15                    listeners on how production from the Perseverance Deposit has been progressing?

            FML     It’s been very good, really. We’ve now completed the development on the mine load and we’ve obviously been doing monthly campaigns through the Greenfields Mill and we’ve now just started the work on preparing the stopes

20                    for the mine load and the development of the (inaudible) (00:00:39) load is commencing at this time as well. So, everything is coming along just fine, really.

 

            BRR    Now, I understand the project tool is also running ahead of schedule, which is a great thing especially in the current climate where plenty of projects said to

25                    e slipping behind and stoping out there will commence this month, if all goes to plan.

            FML     Right, Joel. I’ve been over at Melbourne for the last week doing some other stuff, but my understanding is that we’ll be commencing the stoping next week. All the long-holed vaults have been put in place. Everything’s ready for

30                    us to apply the first set of rings, the south expect ore to be coming out of there next week, or the very latest the week after.

 

            BRR    So, Peter, looking at some of the revenue figures, how did you perform this quarter?

35        FML     Well, then to wrap the quarter let’s start up since April, we’ve pulled just under 7,000 ounces of the development ore and we’ve sold that at an average price of somewhere between A$950 and A$960. So, we had a quite a good revenue stream coming in to help us with the development. The mine, itself, is actually making money.

40

            BRR    Now, some of the low margin gold operations have been hit recently by rising costs, how is Focus performing in terms of cost control and achieving good margins on the ounces produced?

            FML     Well, actual cash costs for the operation have been very good, very much in

45                    ine with our forecast and they’re running between A$460 and A$470 an ounce at the moment, which is giving us a very healthy margin, and we don’t see any reason why that’s going to drop off. The grades are coming out at the expected rate, it will run about 9 to 10 grams and the whole project is taking up as we assumed it would.

 

            BRR    So, Peter, looking out on horizon, what sort of production can we expect from Perseverance and what sort of resource development are you doing at

                        Perseverance as well?

5          FML     Well, our plan at the moment goes for production of 55,000 ounces from Perseverance and that’s taking into account any further extensions to the deposit we might find.  Drilling is continuing in Perseverance and we also anticipate it would be into the Countess slide within the next two months. And we know that we already have an indicated resource there of 36,000 ounces.

10                    nd the idea at the moment is to put a decline across to Countess and then continue the drilling from Countess itself, but we already know that we’re paid for the development in there.  So, things are looking pretty good, really.  We anticipate further extensions to Countess including, at depth with the -- our lowest drive at the moment is on a 250 level, but we’re anticipating that

15                    there’s a very good chance we’re putting a level below that at this stage.

 

            BRR    Now, Peter, shifting over to the corporate operations for the quarter, the big news was your acquisition of the 50% stake in the Redemption Joint Venture that’s held by Canadian company Committee Bay Resources, could you take

20                    s through the terms of the deal and explain what has been acquired?

            FML     This picture, I’ll get back a little bit in history, when we booked the Coolgardie assets some time ago or three years ago, we captured about $7 million and we didn’t believe that we would have the capacity to raise sufficient funds to complete the purchase and do justice to the explorations. So, we took in the

25                    anadian Joint Venture to help us through that period. What happened subsequent to that was of course we did find Perseverance, and we we’re able to raise sufficient funds to buy the Canadian’s ad and end up with 100% of the project in our name. The terms for that are just roughly $19 million in cash and about another $9 million in shares and (inaudible) (00:04:50) for some time,

30                    nd the deal we think was fair for the Canadians and very fair for us and now we have 100% of all the Coolgardie assets remembering, of course, that the Canadians never had any interest in our nickel assets.

 

            BRR    Now, sticking with the corporate debt (inaudible) (00:05:09), Peter, you’ve also secured a

35                    ebt facility with Investec to fund operations? How much have you secured and what are the terms?

            FML     We’ve took about $18 million from Investec and the terms, I can’t go to too much detail about some of it, senseless stuff, but the thing is it will pay back all of the money we’ve borrowed from Investec within 18 months.

40

            BRR    Now, Peter, finally some brief comments perhaps on the Nepean Nickel Project. The outcome of the feasibility study was positive, but Focus has decided to make a strategic decision to put it on hold at the moment. What’s the rational behind that decision?

45        FML     Well, when we started the feasibility on Nepean, the nickel price was A$30,000. And as you’re well aware, the nickel price has slowly slipped since that time and they dropped down to about A$20,000 and we didn’t think our shareholders would realize sufficient value from the nickel assets if we actually started mining it at that price. Since then, the nickel price has improved slightly. They’re up around about A$24,000 at the moment and now we happen to have a real re-think about when this really might press the button and crank this up. We’re still in the stage of permitting the project. The project management plan is just about to be submitted to the Department of

50                    rimary Industries, and we anticipate full regulatory approvals within the next couple of months. So, if the nickel price continues to improve and/or even stabilized as where it is now, we should be in the position to start mining at Nepean.

 

55        BRR    And Peter in the interim, my understanding is that you’re still actively drilling and doing some exploration workout on the project?

            FML     Absolutely, yeah. We’re just weighing up the pros and cons of doing a very large and expensive seismic survey to help us target 4,000 or 5,000 meter holes to get down below the bottom of the existing workings, and we’re also

55                    looking for a new nickel geologist to help us with the regional exploration, but we (inaudible) (00:07:38) several million dollars for our exploration at Nepean in this financial year.

 

            BRR    Peter, thanks so much for those comments and thank you for your time today.

60        FML     It’s a pleasure Joel. Thanks. Bye bye.

 

INTERVIEW CONCLUDED

 

 

 

 

Contact brr@brr.com.au for more information

 

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