over an hour with chris

I frequently request meetings with the MD of various companies I invest in, or may invest in. You could ask the same questions over email, but I prefer face to face. Then I can try to determine if the company is trying to sell me a story. Or, do they have a story to tell. Over an hour with CC yesterday again leaves me convinced that he and IGR definitely have a good story to tell, not to sell. He covered quite a bit with me, from corporate to mining/processing to exploration across the region. My impression, as always, is that IGR are doing everything in a systematic, measured, and de-risked manner. Despite the far greater amount of cash flow poring in, they are not going to willy nilly change their game plan and schedules. So, below are some of the topics covered. These are from my notes, not direct quotes from Chris.

Bank Financing Quarterly payments, debt paid off by end of financial year. Due to a contact anomaly, the payments of $5,000,000 go into a quarantined, off balance sheet account the quarter Before they are due. So, in reality, cash position is $5,000,000 higher than reported in statements.

Hedging Cannot really be economically paid off early. However, after December quarter shipment, the amount to be delivered tapers off dramatically with more gold going to spot market each month.

Forecast POG Won’t even speculate on where or when it might go. But, he did point out that supply is falling, demand from India and China growing. So, Adam Smith says??

Current Share Price. CC believes it’s vastly undervalued but that tension will build until all of a sudden several funds will jump. At present, a major fund in New York likes IGR very much. However, their mandated criteria require that all gold companies in their portfolio have a minimum 7 year mine life. At present we only have six. So next reserve update should trigger a buy.

Mill/Processing plant. After the upgrade, the entire process proved capable of processing quite a bit more tonnage than the boilerplate capacity. Production will remain as scheduled for now in order to ensure seamless transition to feedstock from Maxwells. At end of September he estimates they have approx 1.6 million tons stock piled at Salt Creek mill, and growing.

Maxwells Presently mining ore and stockpiling on site until Salt Creek runs out and can then continue uninterrupted with high head grade feedstock.

Underground Cockeyed Bob Contractor presently mobilising equipment, should start the decline next month sometime.

Reefs Prospect The recently announced SLR type has barely been touched by drills as yet. Same geologic trend as Daisy Milano. CC quite optimistic.

Drill Results No new drill results have been delivered recently because in February IGR appointed a new Exploration manager. At that time it was determined to basically cease exploration while conducting a major review of all tenements and leads which took several months. By doing that they have identified the most promising of existing leads, as well as new ones. Applications for drill permits then cost a fair amount of time waiting on the State to approve them.

Rest assured, CC said there are quite a few results coming soon as exploration/new discovery drilling recently resumed. Almost all drilling since Feb has been for Resource Upgrade or Reserve Conversion of Majestic, Lucky Bay, Spice, and Fly Camp. They do not normally release this infill drilling activity as it is not exploratory.

Red Dale Some of us older holders may remember the promise this prospect showed. There are some serious water problems there affecting drilling. Also, while very prospective, they do not yet have a handle on the geology, so on the back burner for now, to be revisited at a later date.

Queen LaPage JV with Rubicon Previous air core drilling had already identified several targets so they can go straight in with RC rig.

Salt Creek Shale Bonus Zone. You may remember the extremely high grade, shallow shale zone at SC. They basically got 5,000 ounces of it very cheaply as it was part of overburden removal process. He showed me a “desk weight” he keeps on his desk. Beautiful visible gold! Wish you could find that all the time.

Tempted to raise my sentiment to Buy.