Audax Resources

Audax Resources may be worth a look as the time for the court ruling nears. As this article says, there is very little downside but could be plenty of upside. Mark Creasy was very keen to get this tenement but eventually lost out. As he discovered the Bronzewing gold mine and is a geologist, his keenest must have some foundation. Audax has recently done a capital raising for an early drill program. The chart below shows the price resting on the 200-day moving average.



The following is from an article in the West Australian

Beal’s zeal v Creasy’s line

If the High Court had a sense of high drama, a sense of occasion, it would wait until October

the 15th to hand down its decision on the Bronzewing South dispute. On that day, 10 years ago,

a mad scramble to lodge first claim over an unexplored tenement next to the massive

Bronzewing gold mine, near Leonora, was too close to call, so the mining warden opted for a

ballot. It was the start of a titanic struggle for ownership between Australia's richest prospector,

Mark Creasy, and the not-so-rich Vietnam veteran, Leith Beal, that is just weeks from being a

decade old. The good news is, the end is nigh. No, really. Any day now, the High Court will

rule on whether the grant of title to Mr Beal by former state Mines Minister, Norman Moore,

was compromised by a perceived conflict of interest within his own department. If the answer

is no, Beal gets the tenement. If the answer is yes, then it's back to the new minister

responsible, Clive Brown, who will almost certainly make the same determination as his

predecessor. In short, Mr Beal should get the ground either way. That's an outcome that can't

come quick enough for two quite different firms. The first is Perth junior AuDAX Resources,

which has an option to buy 80 per cent of Mr Beal's entitlement. AuDAX has been there from

the start, its shareholders waiting patiently for payday. With that day fast approaching, the

AuDAX board has activated a share purchase plan (where existing shareholders can buy up to

$3000 of stock at a 10 per cent discount to market) which will allow the company to fund

immediate drilling at Bronzewing South once title is granted. The other company waiting on

the High Court is Newmont, a US mining giant that owns the Bronzewing mine (following its

takeover of Normandy). Bronzewing was once the jewel in Normandy's crown but it's now

running out of gold and in the absence of new, nearby discoveries has about three years left to

run. Newmont is spending millions of dollars scouring the area trying to find additional

reserves. But just 20 metres from the mine's southern underground extremity is the Bronzewing

South tenement. That bit of dirt, all 120sqkm of it, could be the pot of gold Newmont needs to

keep 300 mine employees working beyond 2005. The Americans, and Normandy before them,

have already held discussions with AuDAX about the possibility of buying the ground, and

there's speculation an offer has recently been made. But AuDAX is more likely to keep the

tenement, do its own exploratory work and allow Newmont to mine through the tenement's

The Australian West Australian section Monday 2nd September 2002

By Tom Baddeley