Alkane Resources (ASX:ALK): An “open mind” to invest in small near-term developers

The 2^nd annual Super PITch event at Digger & Dealers in Kalgoorlie provides mining companies five minutes to “pitch” their company’s story to investors.

Created by Discovery Capital Partners and Corporate Storytime, this year’s event is sponsored by The Market Herald and RSM Australia

Sonia Madigan:

We’re joining you from the floor at the Kalgoorlie Super PITch event and I’m with Alkane Resources (ALK) Managing Director, Nic Earner.

Recent news from you Nic was around your extension to resource at Boda?

Nic Earner:

Yes it was, yes we put that announcement out on Friday morning so some pretty big
intercepts there to the north of Boda, which a lot of people would be familiar with.

We ended up doing nearly 1.6 kilometres of 0.51 gold equivalent and yeah a fair
bit of stuff to the south as well, all heading towards upgrading our resource later in the
year in Q4.

Sonia Madigan:

But we’re talking resource there, but you actually produce.

Nic Earner:

That’s right, separate to that, so I guess west, maybe 60 kilometres west on the other
side of Dubbo and the other side of the Macquarie River, we have our Tomingley
gold mine.

Last year we did just over 70,000 ounces at an all-in sustaining cost of around
$1600 bucks an ounce, and looking to do similar ounces this year, except admittedly our
cost guidance is a little higher in price this year, with the cost pressure the whole industry has been under.

Sonia Madigan:

So when you come to an event like this what are you trying to do?

Are you looking for someone who may be interested in taking one of your assets?

Are you looking for finance?

Nic Earner:

We’re not in those positions, in general, we’ve done a fair bit of corporate activity ourselves trying to invest in smaller near-term developers or other smaller producers so we’ve got an open mind for that.

It’s a really good place to meet heaps of different brokers and some fund managers at once.

They’re the main things that we’re looking to do when we’re here is to really catch up
with what peers are doing, what contracts are being led, what the cost profile is, etc.

So it’s not a place where a lot of investors come to, as you would know, it’s mostly a lot of other peers, but really trying to look a little bit, you know, at the grassroots M&A type stuff for us as well.

Sonia Madigan:

Okay, so right here right now you have one minute to pitch your company.

Nic Earner:

Well, we’re one of the few gold miners who’s also an incredibly active explorer.

We have very, very large resources there and so we generate cash and so we’re not similar to a lot of other smaller companies that you see here in Diggers & Dealers, but the main reason to invest in us is because you can see that we’re growing and taking the company places, and we’re looking to really expand our resource and that should be recognised and valued in the near future.

Sonia Madigan:

Well, that was very quick, you did well, 67 cents is ALK’s share price today.