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Sallies still hanging in there Posted: Fri, 18 Apr 2008 [miningmx.com] -- Troubled fluorspar producer Sallies is turning around despite the R25,6m loss made for the six months to end-December which was 35% up on the R19m the company lost in the comparable period to end-December 2006. That’s according to chairman and CEO Tom Dale who said he would split his dual responsibilities to bring a new chairman on board before the end of the year. p> Dale was appointed chairman at Sallies in April last year. He took over as CEO from the beginning of October when former CEO Izak Marais quit abruptly. Dale declined to name the incoming chairman but commented; “ you will be pleasantly surprised when you find out who he is.” Dale said the Sallies operation was being turned around through a combination of factors including; better control over the mining operations, the introduction of better management information systems and the negotiation of better prices for Sallies’ products. He added the company had found strong new backers through the latest convertible debenture issue which brings another R75m into the company. These included two financial institutions, Mauritius-based Dale Capital and New York-based hedge fund Firebird. Dale has no links to Dale Capital. He described Firebird as being “very bullish on fluorspar.” He added, “The shareholders have backed us to the hilt in what is a very difficult situation.” Sallies raised R75m in July last year through a rights issue but, according to Dale, “the money just went. It was like a drop of water falling onto a red hot oven plate.” Dale said investors would see “ a dramatic turnaround in the second half” although he said Sallies would still show a loss for its full year to end-June. He pointed out production was rising while Sallies was getting a far better price for its fluorspar following the marketing campaign conducted by himself and business partner Johan Blersch who is now the commercial director for Sallies. According to the interim results published at the beginning of April, production levels at the Witkop mine near Marico rose to 56,599 wet metric tonnes (wmt) in the six months to end-December (previous comparable period - 47,277wmt). The target is to achieve a monthly production rate of 13,000wmt by July. At Sallies’ Buffalo mine, production rose to 10,874wmt from 7,592wmt over the previous comparable period. Click Here to subscribe to our daily newsletter
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