bye! bye! citigold, page-45

Jim Lynch started the Glaciarium ice skating rink in Burwood in the 1960's. It was a huge complex and he had several offices up stairs where he ran a small mining exploration group. He listed Laverton Nickel during the Posideon boom with mineral claims at Mt Stewart WA. There were signs of platinum at Mt Stewart which sent the stock thru the roof. He then floated Leonora Nickel. Then converted the Glaciarium to Great Mines and the complex became a large exploration office. At about this time old man Lynch took an interest in Charters Towers and actually moved there to commence the process of consolidating hundreds of individual claims into a major mining area.

Charters Towers floated in the late 1990's with the hope of re-opening the Charters Towers GoldField. The company was forced into liquidation several years after listing as it became apparent that near surface vein systems could not sustain economic mining. Jim Lynch died some years ago in an accident (to the best of my knowledge) and his son fully took over the family interests. It is quite amazing that CTO has been able to finance itself to this stage and over 10 years without producing much gold. Its greatest cash prize was winning the Court case that caused the forced liquidation. At the time CTO was backed by Marty Armstrong a big time gold bug who went to prison for a massive Japanese bond scam. He was arrested in 1999 and is still in prison. He provided CTO with cash on extremely gracious terms and rescued the company from liquidation.

Since listing CTO the current management has blown the existing share structure by a factor of ten. No-one knows how much gold will flow from the current workings but IMHO too much money was invested in massive underground earthworks to allow large scale equipment to access mine faces. MIght have been more prudent to use smaller scale equipment. I also suspect that mining areas in thin veins may be subject to substantial dilution. Time will tell....