White Tiger Gold
As it takes steps to grow into one of the world’s leading mid-tier gold producers, White Tiger Gold wants to be sure it is offering an attractive platform to investors. It sees current gold exposure, organic growth and potential strategic transactions as critical pieces to an overall strategic plan that has seen White Tiger Gold establish a promising foothold in Russia.
White Tiger Gold is a global, mid-tier gold producer with a robust portfolio of production, development and exploration assets. It has a significant presence and amount of resources in Russia. This gives the company a competitive advantage that allows it to leverage existing assets and makes it an attractive partner in the region of Russia.
Solid Assets
In Russia, White Tiger Gold is involved in several projects and license areas. It owns 100 percent of the Savkino heap leach gold operation in south Siberia, which produces approximately 20,000 ounces of gold per annum. The company also owns 100 percent of the Nasedkino and Uryum license areas, its next development project, and it is also involved with the Zolin-Arkinsk license area, the Pridneprov exploration and mining license and the Takhtamygda license area.
“Savkino, our first operation in Russia, is seasonal, but we have some exciting exploration sites and are looking to start development at Nasedkino later this year with operations beginning in 2014,” CEO Daniel Major says. Working to ensure it has access to capital, White Tiger Gold recently secured a large debt structure in Russia to help cover expansion efforts.
“We have fantastic development and exploration potential, as well as access to capital to help us get the most out of our mines,” Major says.
Growth Potential
Now the company is looking at where it should invest to facilitate growth. In Russia, new construction is doubling the capacity of Savkino, putting in new processing plants and bringing in equipment to start a new mine at Nasedkino.
Moving forward, White Tiger Gold is committed to growth while exhibiting strict safety and environmental compliance. Major says Russian rules are very regimented, and the company in Russia has had no lost-time injuries in the last two years.
“We are working on getting a company report out so we can explain what we are doing from a health, safety and environment point of view,” Major says.
Moving Forward
In late 2011, White Tiger combined with Century Mining, which had properties in Quebec in Peru. But despite the potential of Century Mining’s assets, several factors led to an inability to reach commercial production. Now, White Tiger’s intention is to focus on the continued development of its Savkino and Nasedkino projects in eastern Russia.
The Savkino mine is on target to meet expected production numbers of 20,000 ounces of gold in 2012, and White Tiger is in the process of developing phase two of the expansion plan at the Savkino mine. The objective of the expansion plan is to increase gold production to approximately 50,000 ounces in 2013.
Currently, the company is preparing an updated NI 43-101 technical report on the Nasedkino project, which is scheduled for completion in the third quarter of 2012. When the results are in on the updated technical report, White Tiger will then determine what steps to take regarding future development.
The company will also be making some changes in management. Major will become CFO in July when James McBurney joins White Tiger as the new CEO.
“Jim McBurney brings considerable commercial, financial and executive resource experience to White Tiger,” says White Tiger Executive Chairman Maxim Finskiy. EMI