AIM Resources boss Marc Flory was due to start the long trek to...

AIM Resources boss Marc Flory was due to start the long trek to the central Africa nation of Burkina Faso to inspect the company's flagship zinc project, Perkoa, when the US market meltdown over the sub-prime loans crisis put paid to that idea.
Instead, Flory bunkered down in AIM's new Sydney offices to plot the next move for Perkoa, which is sitting on one of the richest zinc deposits owned by any Australian explorer or producer.
"I should probably stay here," Mr Flory said on Thursday in the midst of the market turmoil.
"The last thing shareholders need to hear is that the managing director has headed overseas right now."
Upsetting the shareholders is the last thing that Mr Flory wants to do at the moment, as AIM moves towards a start-up at Perkoa.
With zinc grades there averaging 14.5 per cent, AIM has customers knocking at its door in pursuit of the high-grade product to blend with ore of poorer quality. Mine development at Perkoa is expected to start in the next two weeks with the construction of a portal, but it is not clear when the first ore will be mined.
As with anything in Burkina Faso, there is not much infrastructure, so AIM is pretty well starting from scratch.
Mr Flory said it was possible that production would not start until 2009.
"We are targeting late 2008, but there is a chance it could be early the following year," he said.
Despite that, AIM is confident of finalising offtake arrangements, also within the next fortnight.
Total resources for the project stand at 6.27 million tonnes of proven and probable reserves for 908,000 tonnes of contained zinc.
AIM is expected to produce about 120,000 tonnes of zinc concentrate a year, which will have an average grade of about 53 per cent.
AIM can see the upside of exploration in areas surrounding Perkoa based on a nine-year exploration licence extension.
"We are confident of increasing the size of the resource at Perkoa," Mr Flory said.
"We know there is zinc there, but not how how payable it is. However, we don't need the big grades at Perkoa from any new discoveries."
AIM was successful with a recent placement, which raised $75 million through the issue of 75 million units and 167 million escrowed receipts priced at 31c each.
Also, there are good signs coming out of the Mumbwa project in Zambia, where it is in a joint venture with BHP Billiton.
Recent drilling there showed a 655 metre hit, grading on average 0.46 per cent copper.
There are some signs of discontent among shareholders.
During an extraordinary general meeting earlier this month, there was a sizeable protest vote against the issue of the shares and the granting of performance rights to directors Victor Bradley and William Cash.
About 40 per cent of proxies submitted for the August 8 meeting voted against the performance rights proposal and 37 per cent voted against the placement.