Bertus de Graaf's appointment as MD was contingent on all the...

Bertus de Graaf's appointment as MD was contingent on all the motions being passed yesterday. I presume the board meeting following went through the formality. The chairman Greg Martyr appeared very pleased with his coup. It is only from this point on that Bertus can begin to appoint new staff to match his plans. I deliberately asked him if he was feeling a bit on his own with so many projects to move on. He said he had a particular person in mind for an administrative position that would take a load off him. Clearly these are early days and there is not a significant coherent management structure extant at present. However he has good external contacts to rely on.

The Kyrgyzstan situation is rather interesting. When the Soviets pulled out of the various satellites it was almost a literal walk out, with projects just left undone. Some of the Russian geophysical scientists whose professions were attached to the country stayed behind. Much of the scientifc data that was collected is still there and available to the appropriate persons. It was these that B de G sought out. Some of the present information he has is anecdotal. He was taken to the tin mine at Inylchek, that was established but never really commenced. After walking into an adit for 700m the temperature was about 70 C while the walls were bone dry. Lake Issykkul with a length of about 170km really forms an inland sea. Even though the air temperatures seasonally drop to below -20 C the lake has never been known to freeze over. (The Soviets used to use it for underwater armaments testing.) Some anomalously high levels of radioactivity has been recorded in the local granites. It is these and the documented scientific data that B de G will investigate in greater detail on his next visit on 10th November. He will be accompanied by Dr Graeme Beersmore (spelling?) from Monash Uni who has been a key consultant for several geothermal companies (PTR, ScopEnergy, etc). The ex-Soviet scientist data base is high quality and it includes some drill holes. I asked how he would compare Kyrgyz with the Cooper Basin in its early days. Because of all the oil and gas drilling, the Cooper Basin was well understood so that there was no thermal risk, although there was technical risk perhaps. Kyrgyz has a higher thermal risk at present since we have little precise scientific knowledge. B de G has negotiated a 6 month evaluation period (expires April 08) with Kentor Gold in anticipation of an HFR JV. URO will not be there on its lonesome.

Eventhough Kyrgyzstan may be a largely unknown quantity to most of us, it is on the regular trucking routes between China and Kazakhstan. It has reasonable infrastructure (roads, transmission lines) and services. Access by drilling rigs is therefore also OK, and actual rigs might be obtained from neighbouring oil rich Kazakhstan, etc.

Juke