BlackRock takes 9.9 per cent stake in IDC

Here is a great article by Barry Fitgerald published in The Australian on Wednesday 15 August, 2012
(republished with permission)

Indochine Mining (IDC)

AS big and as impressive as Wafi-Golpu is looking, it is not going to change the world for Newcrest, particularly if its equity interest does end up being all of 35 per cent. Nope, better leverage to PNG's mineral riches is on offer elsewhere. That's why the world's biggest mining investor, BlackRock, an 11 per cent Newcrest shareholder, might well have juiced up its PNG exposure by holding a 9.9 per cent stake in Stephen Promnitz's Indochine Mining (IDC). It is joined on the register by some other heavyweight institutional investors -- Baker Steel (10.2 per cent), Och-Ziff (7.8 per cent) and the newly arrived Genesis (6.4 per cent) out of Britain.

Indochine started out with a land package in under-explored Cambodia back in December 2010 as its main go, but has since made its main focus PNG following last year's acquisition of the Mount Kare gold-silver project, one at which Promnitz witnessed an almighty modern-day alluvial gold rush in 1988-89 as a young CRA geologist.

 Mt Kare was were 6000 locals descended, shaking gold nuggets from the roots of the grass, some the size of goose eggs. More than one million ounces of gold was plucked from the area's sticky clay and, when it was all said and done, it was underlying hard-rock potential that got CRA and those that have followed excited. Indochine has been busy confirming the mass of work done in the past, as well as doing its own drilling. It is now at the point where it has got a stock exchange compliant resource of 1.8 million ounces of gold and 20 million ounces of silver, including 700,000 ounces of gold at an impressive 3.7g of gold a tonne.

A preliminary feasibility study is due next month and is expected to confirm robust economics for a high-grade open-cut with the potential to produce 100,000- 150,000 ounces of gold equivalent for an initial seven years. Then it would be off to a flying start to a bankable feasibility study, construction in 2014 and first production in 2015.

That Indochine was yesterday trading at 12c for a market capitalisation of $75 million demonstrates there are some "ifs" and "buts" around all that in the minds of some.

Next month's release of the preliminary feasibility study could force a re-rating, as could confirmation that Indochine's recent 33m hit of mineralisation with visible gold in a new prospect just to the south of the currently defined resource, showing it is more than a one-hit wonder.