Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
The past 12 months has been the year in which the company has seen its share price triple to hit record highs. The explorer-come-miner has also entered the S&P/ASX200 index.
“(The year) 2007 has been a great year for Pan Australian, and really that's been driven by the progress on the Phu Kham project in Laos,” says Mr Stafford.
"It's our major asset and we've been building that project over the course of the last 12 to 18 months. We're progressing it to the extent that it's running within budget, and we're running more than two or three months ahead of schedule. So that's really driven the company's performance in terms of share price.”
Phu Kham will begin producing copper-gold-silver concentrate in the first quarter of 2008, giving Pan Australian significant cash flow. BHP Billiton will be the agent for export sales, while a considerable percentage of concentrates will be sold through a newly established deal.
“Recently we announced that we'd done a deal with a trading company to sell concentrate at a combined treatment and refining charge of less than US$0.03 a pound,” Mr Stafford says.
“That was over 40,000 tonnes of concentrate, which is a significant part of our first year's anticipated production. That deal was probably the lowest terms which have been agreed globally in the marketplace, so we're very pleased with that result.”
And even more good news has come out of Phu Kham in recent weeks, with the company announcing that its expansion plans will now be completed by the end of 2009, six months earlier than originally scheduled. This follows the successful placement of an order for a ball mill, which will result in a significant increase in throughput for the project.
“The expansion will take copper production up to 65,000 tonnes per annum, gold production to 60,000 ounces of gold per annum and silver production to over 500,000 ounces per annum,” says Mr Stafford. “It's a 33 per cent increase in throughput.
“And when you look at the capital intensity of the construction of the initial mine and the expansion, we probably will be running at about 50 to 60 per cent of comparable projects elsewhere in the world.”
Despite the success of Phu Kham, Pan Australian has no plans to scale back its search for new deposits in 2008, when it will more than double its 2007 exploration budget, as Gary Stafford explains.
“Of the $US30 million we're spending on exploration and evaluation (in calendar 2008), a significant part of that will be spent at Ban Houayxai, which is a gold-silver project located about 35 or 40 kilometres due west of Phu Kham,” he says.
“We also have a significant copper project in the north of Laos near Phonsavan. In north Thailand, we have the Puthep copper (project). We already have over 80 million tonnes of resource there identified by a previous drilling program by Phelps Dodge, and we believe that it's the sort of project that will be comparable to Phu Kham in size, but it's subject to further drilling success there.”
And it seems that even the recent volatility in the US economy and fluctuating metal prices in London cannot dampen the spirits at Pan Australian.
Mr Stafford says: “Over the next 12 months we see the copper price still saying high.
“We see the gold price staying as high as it is now, if not getting higher. And we think that the first six months of next year are going to be fantastic for investors in terms of Phu Kham coming on stream, starting to produce cash flow, a new ore reserve coming in and also probably seeing some great results from our exploration endeavours at Ban Houayxai, and also from the Puthep Copper Project.
“So the first six months of next year are going to be, I think, a very good period of good news for our investors and shareholders.”
“(The year) 2007 has been a great year for Pan Australian, and really that's been driven by the progress on the Phu Kham project in Laos,” says Mr Stafford.
"It's our major asset and we've been building that project over the course of the last 12 to 18 months. We're progressing it to the extent that it's running within budget, and we're running more than two or three months ahead of schedule. So that's really driven the company's performance in terms of share price.”
Phu Kham will begin producing copper-gold-silver concentrate in the first quarter of 2008, giving Pan Australian significant cash flow. BHP Billiton will be the agent for export sales, while a considerable percentage of concentrates will be sold through a newly established deal.
“Recently we announced that we'd done a deal with a trading company to sell concentrate at a combined treatment and refining charge of less than US$0.03 a pound,” Mr Stafford says.
“That was over 40,000 tonnes of concentrate, which is a significant part of our first year's anticipated production. That deal was probably the lowest terms which have been agreed globally in the marketplace, so we're very pleased with that result.”
And even more good news has come out of Phu Kham in recent weeks, with the company announcing that its expansion plans will now be completed by the end of 2009, six months earlier than originally scheduled. This follows the successful placement of an order for a ball mill, which will result in a significant increase in throughput for the project.
“The expansion will take copper production up to 65,000 tonnes per annum, gold production to 60,000 ounces of gold per annum and silver production to over 500,000 ounces per annum,” says Mr Stafford. “It's a 33 per cent increase in throughput.
“And when you look at the capital intensity of the construction of the initial mine and the expansion, we probably will be running at about 50 to 60 per cent of comparable projects elsewhere in the world.”
Despite the success of Phu Kham, Pan Australian has no plans to scale back its search for new deposits in 2008, when it will more than double its 2007 exploration budget, as Gary Stafford explains.
“Of the $US30 million we're spending on exploration and evaluation (in calendar 2008), a significant part of that will be spent at Ban Houayxai, which is a gold-silver project located about 35 or 40 kilometres due west of Phu Kham,” he says.
“We also have a significant copper project in the north of Laos near Phonsavan. In north Thailand, we have the Puthep copper (project). We already have over 80 million tonnes of resource there identified by a previous drilling program by Phelps Dodge, and we believe that it's the sort of project that will be comparable to Phu Kham in size, but it's subject to further drilling success there.”
And it seems that even the recent volatility in the US economy and fluctuating metal prices in London cannot dampen the spirits at Pan Australian.
Mr Stafford says: “Over the next 12 months we see the copper price still saying high.
“We see the gold price staying as high as it is now, if not getting higher. And we think that the first six months of next year are going to be fantastic for investors in terms of Phu Kham coming on stream, starting to produce cash flow, a new ore reserve coming in and also probably seeing some great results from our exploration endeavours at Ban Houayxai, and also from the Puthep Copper Project.
“So the first six months of next year are going to be, I think, a very good period of good news for our investors and shareholders.”
