I became a Heron holder shortly after they listed. As many of us know Ian Buchhorn was the founder of the company and worked tirelessly to build Heron up from an explorer to maybe one day a producer.
He really has an eye for spotting potential of any form of minerals.
I have heard the story of how he first discovered the nickel prospects around Kalgoorlie and he gradually built a great portfolio by pegging and over time kept building up the portfolio of tenements by eliminating good one's with better one's.
He also knows how to gain and extract maximum benefit for shareholders and has a good track record for those that have followed and stuck with him. I dare say he has been a hard task master at times as he accepts nothing less than his own efforts. In all the years that he was the major shareholder of Heron, as far as I am aware, he never sold a single share even when opportunities presented themselves. I would put money on it that the same story exists since the listing of Ardea.
In my opinion Ian was harshly treated prior to his leaving the company he discovered and without going into detail he is not one to slap himself on the back for effort and while he doesn't like accolades, the real reason why Ardea exists today is because of him and his efforts, and make no mistake, he was the one that pushed for all that "no good" ground consisting of useless nickel be returned to Heron shareholders with the Ardea IPO.
Going back in time - February 2000 Centaur Nickel launches a bid for Heron Resources.
A subsidiary of Centaur Mining & Exploration, Centaur Nickel Investments, owned by Joseph Gutnick, has launched a takeover bid for explorer Heron Resources of Perth valuing the company at some A$24m.
Centaur Mining owns the Cawse laterite nickel project in Western Australia which is expected to be in full production by June this year. Heron Resources owns the Kalpini, Coongarrie and Ghost Rocks.
The "hostile bid" was pitched at .30 cents and after time extensions, not one share changed hands with the share price in the .35 to .43 cent range during the bid.
Gutnick / Cawse / Centaur needed to secure long term feedstock for Cawse.
It has been previously been mentioned of the 2005 deal put together between Heron and Vale of Brazil who had only previously taken over Inco of Canada.
So the original Heron deal was with Inco of Canada who at the time were the second largest producer of nickel.
At the time this deal was heralded as the deal of the century and i can still remember a caricature of Ian Buchhorn depicted as a marathon runner breaking the ribbon at the finishing line.
Into of Canada was now Heron's second largest shareholder and soon after (not to be outdone) BHP wanted to protect its patch,
- BHP Billiton acquired 15.9 million Heron Shares through a purchase from OMG Cawse Pty Limited. Following the Inco placement, BHP Billiton was then the third largest Shareholder.
(for info OMG was the successful bidder for Centaur's Cawse which had been in receivership)
Details of the above in full can be found at this link.
http://www.heronresources.com.au/downloads/reports/quarterly/hrrqr2005_mar.pdfIn April 2007 - A $27.8 Million Capital Raising. Details at link below.
http://www.heronresources.com.au/downloads/asx/2007/hrr20070405.pdfOf course we all know how the GFC in 2008 put the kibosh on just about everything and the Inco/Vale deal with Heron was no exception and in July 2009 Vale walked away saying words to the effect that the Kalgoorlie Nickel Project was probably the best undeveloped nickel laterite provinces in the world. By this time nickel prices had taken a big fall like most other commodities.
Ian Buchhorn still believed that the tide would turn but continued to build a portfolio of ground for the future.
Delving through old reports etc, it can be seen that gold targets and other metals have probably been somewhat neglected for a number of reasons and Heron's gold potential should not be underestimated at this time.
Heron was also fortunate enough to survive during difficult periods and a windfall came by the exchange of an iron ore formation in W.A. by the name of Carina and Heron which had received shares in another company were able to crystallise the asset soon after the takeover of Carina Iron Ore by Mineral Resources Australia and Heron suddenly had a very healthy bank account.
Maybe the very fact that Heron was looking for a cash cow (plenty of opportunities existed after the GFC) some always seemed to have flaws? Heron finally merged with Tri Ausmin in 2014, maybe this was the start of the revival of what is now 100% Ardea owned huge land holding of "worthless" ground.
Only a person like Ian Buchhorn could manage to salvage all this highly potential ground with an ore body that is hard to comprehend.
Cobalt and Scandium just to name two minerals that were of no real significance at the time of Vale's involvement with Heron's nickel. So in 2005 these metals and others within Ardea's nickel landholdings were never considered, they were dismissed at the time.
What real value difference does this make when compared to how Heron's share price spiked in 2005? Plenty!! in my view.
What about the new technology differences and costs between now and 2005, what are the savings?
What are the savings in Ardea being able to provide its own manganese?
What are the savings encountered when we spread the profits between a small register of 105 million shares compared to Heron's register back in 2005?
One could go on and on and of course, we haven't even mentioned the fantastic gold potential which presents itself in W.A. let alone any value we might derive from N.S.W.
I urge ARL shareholders to show patience - we do not need to rush.....yet!!
Look at how others have fallen by the wayside even with off take agreements.
We are head and shoulders above the rest and no matter what, hold your nerve.
GLTAH.
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