Page 8 - pd289-Dec20-mag-web_Neat

neWs

Gascoyne ready to make hay

ascoyne Resources Ltd’s second was appointed chief executive in April the future of the company.
Gcoming became official last month 2019 after a four-year stint as general “Throughout the whole period I
when it was reinstated on the ASX. manger of Evolution Mining Ltd’s Mt thought we’d see a massive turnover
Forced into voluntary administration Carlton operations in Queensland. of our technical staff and people, but
in June 2019 due to poor mine plan- Hay’s time at Mt Carlton saw him de- we have actually had an incredibly
ning and underperformance of the re- liver Evolution a mine operating under loyal team; that is very positive,” Hay
source at its Dalgaranga gold mine in a scenario of sustained low AISC and said.
Western Australia, Gascoyne plunged strong operational cash flows, while “They could all see this opportu-
from one-time market darling to the also extending mine life. nity and to be reinstated on the ASX
brink of collapse. Furthermore, Hay spent time as man- is a fantastic achievement; we have
Despite the nuances of being in ad- aging director of Dampier Gold Ltd fol- achieved something that is very, very,
ministration and the ensuing legal bat- lowing almost 15 years with Barrick Gold rare. Not only that, but we gave the
tle in the Federal Court of Australia Corp in various mine managerial posi- banks all their money back, we have
with Habrok (Dalgaranga Pty Ltd), tions across WA. given all the unsecured creditors 100c
which claimed “alleged deficiencies in With ample skin in the game, Hay in the dollar effectively and that is also
the administrators’ report to creditors”, will call on all his experience to contin- a very, very, rare outcome.
there was no deviating from the strat- ue Gascoyne’s revival at Dalgaranga “We are very proud of that and we
egy the new-look team was unrolling to and lead the company to realise its full want to continue to grow it for our
save Gascoyne. potential. stakeholders, and our shareholders
There was no stronger demonstra- A board composed of George Bauk have had the opportunity to come back
tion of support for Gascoyne’s new (non-executive chairman), Rowan John- in with the entitlement offer to keep
plan than the successful $125 million ston (non-executive director) and a man- themselves whole if they wanted to.”
recapitalisation effort, largely support- agement team including David Coyne Supporters who stuck with Gascoyne
ed by lead manager and full under- (chief financial officer), David Baumgar- can be reasonably pleased with the
writer of an $85 million equity raising tel (Dalgaranga general manager) and company’s resurgence underpinned
– Cannacord Genuity (Australia) Ltd – Shane McBride (joint company secre- by nine consecutive months of aver-
and a $40 million, three-year amortis- tary with Coyne) will ably assist Hay in age gold production from Dalgaranga
ing debt facility with Investec Bank plc, the Gascoyne turnaround. of 6,634oz.
completed in October. In the meantime, Hay has high “Even with the additional expenditure
Spearheading the changes at Gas- praise for the tight-knit bunch at Gas- we have incurred through administration
coyne has been Richard Hay who coyne, which share the same vision for and the Habrok proceedings we are still

Page 8 DeCeMBeR 2020 - JaNUaRY 2021 aUSTRaLIa’S PaYDIRT