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STREAMPLAY STUDIO LIMITED Interim / Quarterly Report 2009

Oct 29, 2009

65841_rns_2009-10-29_3b6e617f-ddcd-4d25-b97d-f1d67356a168.pdf

Interim / Quarterly Report

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FIRST QUARTER ACTIVITIES REPORT

Period: July - September 2009 Release Date: 30 October 2009

The Directors of Gippsland Limited ("Gippsland" or "the Company") provide the following Activities Report for the period July - September 2009, together with details of events up to the date of this report .

CORPORATE

Appointment of Non-Executive Chairman

On 24 June 2009, Gippsland appointed of Mr Ian Gandel as the Company's Non-Executive Chairman. Mr Gandel is a Melbourne based businessman with extensive experience in retail management and retail property. He was involved in the construction and leasing of Gandel shopping centres and has been a director of Gandel Retail Trust. Mr Gandel has previously been involved in the Priceline retail chain and the "CEO" chain of serviced offices.

He has been an investor in the mining industry since 1994, and is currently a substantial shareholder of a number of publicly listed Australian companies. Mr Gandel is a substantial shareholder in Gippsland.

Board of Directors Changes

In light of the stage of development reached by the Company's projects, and consequent changed demands on executive resources, the Directors implemented certain changes as a result of which:

  • Dr John Chisholm retired as a Director of Gippsland whilst continuing in his role as the Company's Chief Geologist.

  • Mr RJ (Jack) Telford retired from the position of Executive Chairman whilst continuing in his role as Director and the Company's Chief Executive Officer.

The above strategic changes were undertaken to provide a greater distribution of responsibilities within the Company whilst reducing the workloads of Jack Telford and John Chisholm to a more manageable level.

Abbotsleigh Funding

During April 2009, the Company announced that it had obtained a funding facility ("Loan") from Abbotsleigh Pty Ltd, a company associated with Mr Ian Gandel, for an advance of $800,000 to the Company for working capital purposes.

Pursuant to the Loan agreement, Abbotsleigh was provided with the option to convert the Loan into fully paid ordinary shares ("Shares") in the Company at a conversion rate of one Share for every $0.01 of the amount outstanding under the Loan. On 26 August 2009 Abbotsleigh elected to convert the Loan principal into Shares. Subsequently a total of 80 million Shares were issued to Abbotsleigh and the debt was extinguished.

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Successful Share Placement

During the Quarter the Company successfully completed a private placement of 15,625,000 Shares ("Placement Shares") to European institutional investors at a price of $0.032 each to raise the sum of $500,000 before costs.

The issue of the Placement Shares was undertaken within the Company's 15% placement capacity with the Placement Shares being admitted for trading on the Australian Securities Exchange on 18 August 2009.

Renounceable Rights Issue

During the Quarter the Company announced a fully underwritten renounceable Rights Issue to all shareholders on the basis of two new Shares for every seven existing Shares at an issue price of $0.032 per new Share ("Rights Issue") to raise $3,872,958 for the Company before costs.

The Rights Issue was fully underwritten by Gandel Metals Pty Ltd (as trustee for the Gandel Metals Trust), a company controlled by Mr Ian Gandel. The Rights Issue price represented a 41% discount to the 30 day volume weighted average price of Gippsland Shares traded on ASX.

Valid subscriptions to the Rights Issue totalled 112,920,150 million Shares equating to an up-take of 93.3%. Subsequently the 6.7% shortfall, equating to 8,109,787 Shares, was allocated to Gandel Metals pursuant to the Company's underwriting agreement with that party.

The Rights Issue was completed on 14 October 2009.

Repayment of Director Loans

Following the successful completion of the Rights Issue, the Company repaid the unsecured interest free loans totalling $300,000 advanced to the Company by Directors RJ Telford and J Starink in December 2008.

Annual Report 2009

On 23 October 2009, Gippsland's Annual Report 2009 was lodged with ASX Limited. An electronic copy of this report is available on the Company's website.

ABU DABBAB

Project Finance Due Diligence

During the past Quarter, Gippsland executives met in Germany with representatives of the Company's tantalum offtake customer HC Starck GmbH, which has been contracted to purchase 600,000 pounds per year of Abu Dabbab tantalum pentoxide for a period of ten years.

Whilst in Germany the Company's executives also met with senior management of KfW-IPEX Bank GmbH ("KfW") in relation to project finance discussions for the Abu Dabbab project. Legal and technical due diligence have been largely completed by KfW, however the bank must now consider the impact of the use of desalinated water, an unlined tailings storage facility, and revised offtake terms with HC Starck to take into account the delivery of a high purity synthetic tantalum concentrate.

International Tantalum Conference - Estonia

During October 2009, Directors Ian Gandel and Jack Telford attended the Tantalum-Niobium International Study Center ("TIC") conference which was this year held in Estonia, the home of the tantalum, niobium

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and rare earth processor and refiner Silmet As. The TIC has historically represented the tantalum supply chain starting from miners through to the refiners and end-users.

The conference was particularly concerned with international pressure seeking to ban the use of tantalum ores originating from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and other areas of conflict. According to senior industry TIC members, major computer and cellphone manufacturers do not want to incorporate conflict tantalum (also known as "Coltan" or "blood tantalum") in their products.

Concern was expressed by some delegates that a number of TIC members were trading in conflict material directly or by way of chemical intermediates produced from conflict tantalum.

Conference delegates in general were conscious of the important role Abu Dabbab is destined to play in the long term supply of non-conflict tantalum feedstock.

Tantalum Supply and Demand

There have been a number of reports from respected analysts drawing attention to a looming supply side shortfall, expected to emerge as existing inventories of materials held by ore and concentrate processors decline. These inventories are forecast to be exhausted with 18 months.

Primary supply of tantalum has been severely curtailed in recent times with the suspension of operations at Talison’s Wodgina mine, the earlier closure of Talison’s Greenbushes mine, the suspension of operations by Noventa in Mozambique and the suspension of operations by Tanco at its Bernic Lake mine. The supply situation is expected to be exacerbated as conflict tantalum is increasingly driven from the market.

Analysts expect that tantalum prices would have to rise significantly before any of the suspended operations would be re-commissioned.

Outlook

The Directors consider that the 44.5 million tonne Abu Dabbab deposit and the nearby 98 million tonne Nuweibi deposit places the Company in a unique and highly advantageous position in the global tantalum supply chain. The Directors consider the Abu Dabbab project to be crucial to the reliable long-term supply of the strategic metal to the electronics and aviation industries.

This dependence upon Abu Dabbab has been greatly enhanced by the recent closure of mines in Australia, Africa and Canada. While these closures were in part related to the contraction of the electronics industry, the Directors are of the firm view that these closures were also triggered by:

  • Escalating cost of production

  • Decreasing tantalum grades

  • Increased metallurgical complications

  • Unacceptably high uranium and thorium contents pursuant to IMO Class 7

  • Lack of shipping space for radioactive IMO Class 7 tantalum concentrates.

The Abu Dabbab project is designed to produce a high-grade SynCon having a Ta2O5 content in excess of 50%. The shipment of the tantalum product will not be restricted as it will not be classified as an International Maritime Organisation (IMO) Class 7 material due to its low uranium and thorium content.

The Directors consider the Company to be in a unique and highly advantageous position in the global supply chain for tantalum, a highly strategic metal.

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ERITREA

Granting of Three Prospecting Licences

On 5 October 2009, the Company announced that its 100% owned subsidiary Nubian Resources PLC was granted three Prospecting Licences ("Licences") in the Adobha region of The State of Eritrea ("Eritrea").

The north-western part of Eritrea covers the highly mineral endowed, Precambrian Nubian-Arabian Shield that includes the 9.91 Moz Sukari gold deposit as well as Gippsland's world class 142.4 million tonne JORC Code compliant Abu Dabbab-Nuweibi tantalum-tin deposits[♣] .

In recent years there have been a number of significant gold and base metal discoveries in Eritrea such as at Bisha, Zara (Kola) and in the vicinity of Asmara.

The three Licences cover 300 km[2] of ground that is prospective for volcanogenic massive sulphide (VMS) mineralisation and structurally controlled gold mineralisation. The area was selected following an interpretation of Thematic Mapper (TM) satellite data of a large part of northern Eritrea. During this study, the Bisha and Zara (Koka) mineral deposit areas were used as type examples. The Bisha deposit was selected as it represents a VMS deposit of the type that can be expected to occur in the area of interest. Koka was selected as it represents a structurally controlled gold deposit located in the southern part of the area of interest.

The Licences of 100 km[2] each, are located between 203 km and 247 km north of the Eritrean capital Asmara in a geological setting similar to the Bisha gold-base metal deposit located some 174 km to the south that contains 1.44 Moz Au and 0.39 Mt Cu. The structural setting of the area covered by the Licences is also similar to that found at the 0.94 Moz Zara gold project located some 65 km to the south.

As a result of these successful applications, the Company now holds Licences totalling 300 km[2] in a region that has had minimal previous exploration but has the potential to host high grade gold and base metal deposits, similar to recent substantial discoveries immediately to the south.

Geochemical Sampling Programme

An initial geological sampling program has commenced and involves the collection of drainage channel samples within the project area, a technique which is known to be effective in the exploration of both gold and base metal deposits in Eritrea.

The drainage sampling is focusing on eleven target anomalies that were identified during the TM interpretation study. Drainage samples are being collected from pre-determined sites designed to test the TM targets within the three Licences. All samples will be analysed for Cu, Pb, Zn and Au.

The Exploration programme is being lead by Gippsland’s Chief Geologist Dr John Chisholm, assisted by two of the Company's Egyptian geologists, two Eritrean geologists plus support personnel.

For further information, please contact:

RJ (Jack) Telford Director Chief Executive Officer Gippsland Limited

T: +61 8 9340 6000

E: [email protected]

W: www.gippslandltd.com

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DJ Carmichael & Co

Paul Covich / Rob Matthews

WH Ireland Limited (UK)

John Molyneux / James Hughes

Note:

In accordance with Listing Rule 5.6 of the Australian Stock Exchange Limited, the geological information in this report that relates to Exploration Results, Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves is based on data compiled by Dr John Chisholm, a Fellow of The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy. Dr Chisholm has sufficient experience which is relevant to the style of mineralisation and type of deposit under consideration and to the activity which he is undertaking to qualify as a Competent Person as defined in the 2004 Edition of the "Australasian Code for Reporting of Exploration Results, Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves". Dr Chisholm consents to the inclusion in the report of the matters based on his information in the form and contest in which it appears.

Abu Dabbab & Nuweibi JORC Code Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves

Table 1: Abu Dabbab Mineral Resources (100 g/t Ta2O5 cut-off)

Category Million Tonnes
Ta2O5 (g/t)
Sn(%)
Measured Resource
Indicated Resource
Inferred Resource
Total Resource
15.2
290
0.143%
17.3
250
0.078%
12
200
0.03%
44.5
250
0.09%

Table 2: Abu Dabbab Ore Reserves (100 g/t Ta2O5 cut-off)

Table 2: Abu Dabbab Ore Reserves(100g/t Ta2O5cut-off)
Category Million tonnes
Ta2O5 (g/t)
Sn(%)
Proved Reserve
Probable Reserve
Total Proved & Probable Ore Reserves
15.201
260
0.133
15.038
250
0.084
30.240
255
0.109

Table 3: Nuweibi Mineral Resources (100 g/t Ta2O5 cut-off)

Category Million Tonnes
Ta2O5 (g/t)
Nb2O5 (g/t)
Indicated Resource
Inferred Resource
Total Resource
48
147
90
50
138
95
98
143
0.09%
  • NB 1: Numbers in tables 1, 2 & 3 may not correlate exactly due to rounding.

  • NB 2: In Nuweibi the Resources have the potential to be expanded as the mineralisation to the east, west and at depth, is open as diamond drill holes in these areas bottomed in mineralisation.

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