Great Basin Gold has all the cash it needs

Great Basin Gold has all the cash it needs - Ferdi Dippenaar, CEO

In an interview on SAfm @ 18:15 on 24 March 2009

[miningmx.com] -- GREAT Basin Gold has raised all the money it needs to for its Burnstone mine in South Africa to be brought into production and it has come at a critical juncture for the TSX- and JSE-listed group, said CEO Ferdi Dippenaar.

Great Basin raised C$130m in a rights issue and an over-allotment to the underwriters will likely lift that to C$150m, which is more than enough to bring Burnstone into commercial production from July 2010.

"We went to the bulk of our current shareholders which supported the offering, over 50% - and then we took some very good long gold funds onto our shareholder register for the other 50%," Dippenaar said on SAfm Market Update.

"It's still expensive. I think you do take on quite a bit of dilution when you raise the money, especially on our side of the business, where we are still developing projects to bring into production in the next 12 to 18 months. So it's a bit tougher, but if you have a look at the liquidity in the market, it's not that easy right now," he said.

The money has come at the right time, he said.

"We were at a critical juncture in terms of do we scale down activities, especially at Burnstone, or do we go as quickly as possible as the contractors and the guys at the mine can deliver and actually get the mine up and running to see that we get the production," he said.

"History has shown us as soon as you scale down or put something on care and maintenance, and bring it back into production, probably the delay and the cost of doing it increases significantly. So I do believe, despite the dilution, we took the right decision," he said.