reuters interview with chris cairns

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"That's a big call, said Cairns. "We'd be happy just to see A$650."

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By James Regan
SYDNEY, Sept 21 (Reuters) - Of all the places Canadian Chris Cairns has panned for gold, China is his favourite. But with bullion prices the highest in nearly two decades, the Australian outback is a close second.
In late 2003, when Cairns started exploring for gold in the largely unproven Karonie mineral belt, about 400 kilometers (248 miles) inland from the far western Australian coast, gold sold for about A$540 an ounce.
This week the precious metal has zoomed above A$600 an ounce for the first time in 2-½ years, spurring Cairns, the managing director of Integra Mining Ltd. , and other prospectors to dig deeper and faster.
"The time in 2000 when geologists with 20 years experience couldn't get a job sitting on a drill rig are over," Cairns said.
"Now graduates just out of university are being offered A$80,000-$100,000 ($60,000-$76,000) packages."
Little movement in the value of the Australian dollar against the greenback and a rising U.S. dollar gold price have teamed to add lustre to Australia's gold miners.
Gold prices in both currencies are up about 5 percent since Sept. 1.
"We were probably economic at A$575 an ounce, though at A$600 we start to make a very healthy margin. North of that we are looking pretty good at our ability to bank the project," he said

BATTERY OF STUDIES
In the last U.S. trading session, gold hit its highest since January 1988 at $470.70 an ounce.
Cairns is counting on a battery of mining studies to show that the Aldiss-Randalls deposit controlled by Integra Mining has enough promise to yield as much as 75,000 ounces of gold annually. Blueprints of the find so far point to a resource of more than 1 million ounces, he said.
Integra's board has approved A$1.75 million in exploration funding through December to get a clearer picture on how much gold the company could be sitting on.
Cairns has worked in the Philippines, Indonesia, and recently, in China to develop the country's largest foreign-owned gold mine, the Jinfeng lode. The geologist said sentiment among investors in Australia for gold was rising in step with bullion prices.
In August, Integra raised A$2.6 million by placing 33.34 million shares priced at eight cents each. Since then the stock has traded as high as 12 cents.
Investment fund Telluride Investment Trust subscribed for 12.5 million shares while private mining outfit Polymetals Mining Services took 10 million shares.
Cairns holds 250,000 shares and 4 million 20-cent options.
"We probably won't need to go back to the market for more funds until we finish our next study," he said.
By the time Integra is ready to produce gold in late 2007, gold has a good shot of being worth much more, Cairns said, owing in part to declining production in top producing countries such as South Africa and Australia as well-worked lodes mature, increasing the rarity of the metal.
Last month both countries recorded declines in second quarter gold output.
Sector heavyweight Goldcorp Inc. predicted gold is primed to hit $500 an ounce by year-end and $800 within one to two years,
nearing the all-time high of around $850 in early 1980.
At today's U.S.-Australian dollar exchange rate that would make bullion worth as much as A$1,052 an ounce.
"That's a big call, said Cairns. "We'd be happy just to see A$650."
($1=A$1.30)