MINING identity Michael Kiernan has rounded out his suite of mining interests by purchasing $4.5 million worth of shares in mineral sands producer Matilda Minerals via his venture with Hong Kong's Noble Group.
The placement saw the issue of 7.5 million ordinary shares at 60c per share to Crawley Resources, which represents interests associated with Kiernan and Noble.
Speaking to MiningNews.net, Kiernan said he has always wanted to be involved with mineral sands and asked "good mates" Bruce Maluish and Barry Bolitho – Matilda's managing director and non-executive director, respectively – if an opportunity arose in Matilda, he would put his hand up for it.
"I've always said when I left ConsMin that I wanted to focus on gold, uranium and mineral sands. Monarch Gold is certainly off and running, Uran is the uranium exercise … and Matilda, I had a group of advisers looking at all the mineral sands in Australia and Matilda Minerals was just the serious standout and it has been a serious standout for some time," Kiernan said.
"Matilda Minerals as a re-treater or treater of old strandlines is a very, very simple operation, low capital cost and low margins."
Kiernan has a reputation for setting up emerging producers such as Monarch Gold Mining, Uran and Consolidated Minerals.
Last month, Matilda announced commercial production from its Andranangoo Creek project in the Tiwi Islands was underway. The project is forecast to produce 275,000 tonnes of zircon-rich concentrate over the next eight years.
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