I have held DTR since August 2019. Two factors were critical in...

I have held DTR since August 2019. Two factors were critical in my initial investment and my willingness to continue to hold:

1. The quality and relevant expertise of its Non-Executive Independent Board Members

2. The company’s strategic focus on re-activating and further developing gold mines which had previously been profitably operated.

Dateline’s Chairman since 2018 and Non-Executive Independent Director since 2013 is Mark Johnson. Previously he was a co-founder of the Macquarie Group and Chair of AGL Energy, Alinta Energy and Guinness Peat Group. He has a 19.46% shareholding in DTR. In addition, Mr Johnson has provided an unsecured loan to the Company which, with the inclusion of unpaid interest, amounted to $2,549,160 as at 31 December 2020.

Gregory Hall has been a Non-Executive Independent Director since 2015. He is an exploration geologist with over 40 years of international experience. He was employed for many years by Placer Dome and served as their Chief Geologist from 2000 to 2005. Mr Hall has had a senior role in discoveries and development of major gold mines in Australia and internationally. He has an 0.46% shareholding in DTR.

Anthony Ferguson became a Non-Executive Independent Director in 2019. His experience includes establishing and leading Macquarie Group’s natural resources team. He has a 2.13% shareholding in DTR.

Since 2016 DTR has been focussed on acquiring and developing historic gold mines in Colorado, USA. The Company owns 100% of the Gold Links Mine project located in Gunnison County. Gold Links has previously produced about 150,000 ounces of high-grade gold, but there are large areas that remain untested at surface and little to no exploration has been done below the valley floor. DTR has also acquired the Lucky Strike and Mineral Hill permitted gold properties and now owns 1700 acres of freehold and underlying mineral rights. Significantly, it also owns the Lucky Strike gold processing facility.

Dateline has now entered into a binding agreement to acquire 100% ownership of the Colosseum gold mine in San Bernardino County, California. The transaction involves 83 mining claims that host the Colosseum Gold Mine and surrounding areas, totalling approximately 1,600 acres. Between 1988 and 1993, 344,000 ounces of gold were won at Colosseum from a calculated mining reserve of 700,000 ounces. However, this estimation was based on drilling to a depth of just 333 metres.

Aside from the California project itself, there is a single line statement within this latest ASX release that has the potential for a fundamental transformation in the liquidity of DTR’s shares:

“the Company is also proposing to consolidate its share capital pursuant to a yet to be determined consolidation ratio”

Friday’s closing price for DTR was 0.3 cents with approximately 45 million shares in the ‘bid’ queue at 0.3 cents and 29 million in the ‘ask’ queue at 0.4 cents. Trading in the shares is quite irregular.

Currently DTR has 8.635 billion shares on issue. If the Company were to have say a 100 to 1 consolidation the number of shares would reduce to 86.35 million.

The ASX’s ‘minimum price step’ for shares priced up to 10 cents is 0.1 cents, and 0.5 cents for shares priced up to $2.00. At the current DTR price a prospective buyer would have to raise their bid by 0.1 cents or 33% in order to make a trade. Post-consolidation, it could be anticipated that the increase in the share price would be broadly commensurate with the reduction in the number of shares on issue. Thus, the bid-ask spread would likely be of the order of 1 to 2%, dramatically enhancing the liquidity of DTR.