interesting developments re emperor mine story

Now lets think about this - if Emperor have fully written off the value of the recently closed Gold Mine next door to GMR, I'm sure GMR would be tossing this around with the prime perspective of possibly picking it up for a song. Knowing the pitfalls and traps that has caused Emperor to bear this massive loss, surely a smart crew like GMR could/would make it work, be profitable, and bring Sabeto (next door) immediately on line once the expected resource and reserves have been confirmed via JORC estimate, and feasibility study etc. Fiji could well incentivise the opportunity to get it up and running.
Stranger things have happened IMO.
Any other thoughts?
Todays article as follows:


Restructure planned to rescue Emperor

Friday, 2 February 2007
Chris Cann

THE much-anticipated company restructure of Emperor Mines has been released, with the junior announcing it was pursuing opportunities to either merge with another company or divest assets in a bid to breath life back into the ailing gold producer.



Emperor Mines CEO Brad Gordon


Narrow, high-grade orebodies are the order of the day at Emperor's Vatukoula operation.

Emperor has been in a trading halt since late December after enduring a quarter of operational difficulties at each of its assets, which was capped in early December with the closure of its Vatukoula gold mine in Fiji. The company also owns the Tolukuma gold mine and has a 20% interest in the massive Porgera gold mine, both in PNG.

Emperor said it had been forced to fully write off the value of Vatukoula.

Corporate communications director Patrick Bindon would not be drawn on which companies Emperor was speaking to in regards to buying its assets or merging when speaking to PNGIndustryNews.net this morning, but said there was "significant interest" in both options and an announcement would be made once another party was committed.

ANZ bank has agreed to provide the capital necessary to "realise the full potential of Emperor's assets" through the restructure.

The first tranche of a two-tranche financing deal is worth $US15 million and has already been drawn.

The amount to follow in the second tranche will be determined by whether the assets are sold or the company is merged and what form the final deal takes.

The total debt facility will be factored into any deal and be repaid in full at completion of that deal.

Bindon was unable to comment on the most likely form of the restructure other than to say Emperor was considering all options including the sale of assets, a combination of selling some assets and merging with a company, or a straight merger.

However, it would seem a sensible fit for an asset to be sold in order to supply cash to repay debt, which would facilitate a smooth merger.

Bindon said the restructure had been delayed by the political situation in Fiji, where a bloodless coup resulted in interim military rule and occupation of Vatukoula.

It was a 2006 to forget for the company after chief executive Brad Gordon was appointed last April to oversee an operational restructure of the company, and going on to tell the Diggers and Dealers forum in Kalgoorlie in August that Emperor intended to become a 350,000oz per annum gold producer by 2007 and the most active explorer in PNG and Fiji.

However, the December quarterly report tells a vastly different story to that previously hoped.

The company has predicted losses from operations throughout 2006 would combine with the decision to write off Vatukoula to result in a $A200-230 million loss for the year.

At Porgera, a 10-day shutdown to carry out remedial work on a ball mill and autoclave brickwork, power interruptions, and ongoing mining and moving of material difficulties associated with a Stage 4 rock fall, resulted in a 19% drop in production from more than 29,000oz in the September quarter to less than 24,000oz in the December period.

At Tolukuma, a 1% slide in production from the previous period was put down to damage to the SAG mill in late November and a helicopter crash in October.

The largest loss was obviously at Vatukoula, where significant problems with the Phillip shaft only acted as a precursor to the eventual shutdown because of unmanageable mining costs. Production was down 47% in the December quarter from 17,338oz to 9143oz.

Cash costs for Vatukoula were $US978 per ounce of gold produced, which was not too much greater than the Tolukuma figure of $793/oz. Costs at Porgera were $289/oz.

Official full-year figures are due to be released late this month.

Shares in the company are likely to start trading late today or Monday.
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'I'm dreaming of a green Christmas' ........ GMR $11.00
per share. Foghorns, Sirens, Whistles, Flashing Lights,
toot toot, toot toot, all aboard - the trains leaving,
all aboard, no more bets, no more bets thank you!
Get on board the bullet train express. Thunderbirds away! The green hornet is go! Get the bat-car Robin!
Big fat joints for everyone SS! WEEeeeeeeeeeiiiiiiiiiEEE!
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