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DART MINING NL — Board/Management Information 2014
Mar 3, 2014
64792_rns_2014-03-03_bc0fd206-c100-4ae3-b0ae-5a0c71de7426.pdf
Board/Management Information
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ASX ANNOUNCEMENT REPORT TO SHAREHOLDERS
Significant change is already underway at Dart Mining N.L.
In the 21 days since your new Board members were appointed we have assembled a revitalised Dart Mining team and initiated the steps which I believe can fulfil the vision in which you invested.
Our first task has been to deal with “non-core” projects. The Koonenberry Exploration Licence has already been farmed out and our minimum contractual drilling commitments met under the New Ballarat gold project agreement.
We are already well into the process of putting together a detailed set of plans and budgets to achieve the parallel core goals of re-focussing of Dart Mining on developing the Unicorn Project and re-invigoration of regional exploration in North-East Victoria.
Core Goals
In doing so, our approach is different: Rather than simply work out how the Company’s existing various resources can be deployed, we plan to identify and timeline what needs to be done to achieve those core goals and then work to build the financial, technical and human resources to achieve them. It will be goaloriented, time critical.
We propose to deliver those plans and budgets to you before the end of the month.
Executive appointments
The new appointees to your Board – myself and Rob Hogarth -- bring obvious legal, commercial and costcontrol strengths to add to Dean Turnbull’s considerable technical skills and experience. A priority task has been to identify and put in place a management team with the specific skills and experience to successfully undertake all that is required to achieve our core goals.
The first two key management appointments have already been made:
John Cornelius becomes acting CEO, filling the void created by the departure late last year of Lindsay Ward.
4 March 2014 Dart Mining NL ACN 84 119 904 880 ASX Code: DTM Board & Management: Contact Details: Investment Data: Chairman: Bruce Paterson Level 2, 395 Collins Street Shares on issue 207M Acting CEO: John Cornelius Melbourne VIC 3000 Unlisted options 11.5M Executive Director: Dean Turnbull Australia Phone: +61 (0)3 8611 5399 Non-Executive Director: Rob Hogarth Substantial Shareholders: John Cornelius Top 20 Holdings 40% Phone: +61 (0)418 338 909 Email: [email protected] Key Projects: Unicorn Porphyry Mo-Cu-Ag Morgan Porphyry Mo-Ag-Au Mountain View Au Visit our webpage: www.dartmining.com.au
John has the skills and experience to manage a Company of the scale of Dart Mining and the many challenges of developing the Unicorn Project. He has had copious experience as a senior executive or board member of a range of resource companies including Essential Petroleum, Panaegis Gold Mines, Monto Minerals, Carter Holt Harvey and Elders Resources. John’s key strength for Dart Mining is the breadth of knowledge he has previously demonstrated to coordinate the extensive technical team (geological, metallurgical, permitting, engineering, construction and logistical) needed to bring a project such as Unicorn through development into production and subsequent sales of product. Furthermore, John has the resource commodity marketing, (China and Japan) project evaluation and financing skills to leverage assets in the ground into realisable current value. Combined, that is an absolutely relevant, powerful and necessary package for Dart Mining.
Dr John Cottle becomes Principal Technical Consultant, heading a Technical Assessment Committee to address the issues which have slowed progress at Unicorn. John’s technical team includes Bernie Hochwimmer, the former Dart technical director who has a deep knowledge of the Unicorn deposits, and Dean Turnbull who will continue his Exploration Manager responsibilities, both for Unicorn and the regional exploration in North-East Victoria.
John Cottle’s reputation is legendary. He conducted one of the earliest independent resources assessment studies of Olympic Dam, conducted assessments of ERA’s Ranger and Jabiluka projects and Esso’s Rundle and Condor sites, among many others. He was also engaged by the Norwegian government to advise on their giant Kirkinese iron ore project. John is quietly determined with a deep knowledge of Australian and many International mineral deposits, their attendant geology, mining and processing issues. He is ideally suited to deal with the complexities of possible geo-metallurgical issues, selective mining and mineral separation intricacies at Unicorn.
Add the skills and experience of John Cornelius and John Cottle to the strengths of our new Board, with its focus on stringent financial control, and I can honestly say that I believe Dart – and particularly its Unicorn molybdenum/copper/silver/(rhenium) project in north eastern Victoria – has never been in better hands.
The Board
If you missed earlier announcements, my own background includes a long term as a senior executive at Newcrest Mining and more recently specialised legal, commercial, governance, directorship and consultancy counsel across a broad number of resource companies and projects advisory practice. Also joining your Board is Rob Hogarth, former head of KPMG major projects division, who has had decades of experience with resources companies, both large and small. He continues to be highly involved in overviewing financial performance and risk management for a number of companies within the resources industry.
Plans to be release by months end
I cannot promise overnight results -- there are, as you know, complexities in the Unicorn ore body, water management and tailings impoundment issues, all of which are inter-related and need to be worked through. Ultimately all of those issues impact local communities, so we will need to work very hard to carry those communities and other relevant stakeholders with us. That will require providing objective facts as they evolve, explanation of the genuine expected impacts of those facts and therefore continued consultation with all relevant Government bodies and local communities.
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But we have the strategy, the team and the will to deliver results. So far as is humanly possible I want to keep you informed of where we are going and the milestones along that path.
I expect to have half year accounts – a clear understanding of where the Company sits in a financial sense – to you by March 11. Within two weeks of that I intend to deliver an overview of Dart Mining’s forward plans and budgets for both of its core goals - Unicorn and Regional Exploration in North East Victoria.
I look forward to continuing to keep you informed.
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Bruce J Paterson
Chairman
Dart Mining NL
For information: Bruce J Paterson 0412 064 374 John Cornelius 0418 338 909
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