[miningmx.com] — FERDI Dippenaar has bought nearly R500,000 worth of Great Basin Gold shares, the company of which he is president and CEO, in an effort to underline his faith in the stock and, possibly, help shore-up a dramatic decline in the company’s value.
Great Basin was trading at C$2.20 in mid-September, but is now worth nearly half of that. The share shed nearly 7% on Friday and is currently valued at C$1.20/share on the Toronto Stock Exchange, equal to a C$580m.
In an announcement to the JSE, Great Basin said Dippenaar had subscribed for 50,000 Great Basin shares at C$1.23 per share of which he is the direct beneficiary. This is an outlay of some R488,000.
Dippenaar has said in the past that Great Basin is consistently one of the top five shorted stocks where it principally trades in Canada.
Miningmx reported last week that the Burnstone mine, the South African mine that was officially opened by Great Basin Gold in February, was battling to ramp up production because of “the unavailability of sufficient stopes to meet the targeted ore tonnes”.
Burnstone’s operations are also being affected by low grade because of the high volumes of low grade development material which are diluting the ore mined from the actual stopes, Miningmx said.
Gold production is running way below plan as Burnstone produced 6,519 ounces of gold in the September quarter (June quarter: 5,619 oz) which was less than half the 14,000 oz of gold that was supposed to be produced.
Said Dippenaar in October during an interview with Miningmx: “We made a call earlier this year to change the way we developed given that build up was slower than expected. We’ve gone for bigger blocks which, while requiring a change in stoping method, will lower costs, mean less dilution and produce more tons.”
“I am extremely confident this will lead to delivery in 2012; in fact, I’d like to say risk of disappointment in 2012 is low,” he says.
