RE:NEWS NEWS .... PDAC 2013: Fixer-upper CEO maintains future is bright for East Asia Minerals
Zhang Xinping for National Post filesEast Asia Mineral Corp. appointed Ed Rochette, a self-described “fix-it guy,” as its CEO in 2011.
-
-
- Google+
- LinkedIn
- Email
- " href="https://business.financialpost.com/2013/03/04/pdac-2013-fixer-upper-ceo-maintains-future-is-bright-for-east-asia-minerals/#disqus_thread" rel="nofollow" title="Join the discussion...">Comments
- More
Mention East Asia Minerals Corp. to a gold investor, and you’re likely to hear string of curses in response. This company was an ultra-high flyer in 2010, with a market cap in the billions. Then everything collapsed amid a smaller-than-expected resource at its Miwah gold deposit in Indonesia, and questions about East Asia’s legal ability to even develop it.
In October 2011, the company appointed Ed Rochette, a self-described “fix-it guy,” as its CEO. Mr. Rochette, 66, has more Asian mining experience than just about anyone, having worked in nearly ever Asian country at one point or another (North Korea is one exception). He is the man who acquired the Oyu Tolgoi copper-gold project on the cheap for Robert Friedland and Ivanhoe Mines Ltd., which ultimately made that company a fortune.
East Asia continues to represent one of his biggest challenges.
“In the last 14 months, I’ve had to clean up a lot of things,” he said in an interview.
East Asia was facing a severe liquidity crisis when he took over, and he immediately terminated 85% of the staff and cut the cash burn rate from $2.5-million a month to just $400,000. A financing in December 2011 fixed up the balance sheet.
Now he sees an opportunity to actually rebuild some value for shareholders. Amid all the brouhaha over Miwah, he maintains that no one is providing any value for the company’s Sangihe project, which has 1.1 million ounces of resources and can be brought into production for less than $100-million. He said he has been approached by companies eager to finance it, and that production should be reached in two to three years. He plans to return the cash flow from that project to shareholders.
Miwah remains a bigger challenge. Mr. Rochette said that East Asia needs a large partner to move that one forward. Just as important, it also needs permission from the government to reclassify the forestry zone at the project to permit mining. This issue blew up into a minor scandal a couple of years ago, and remains a key overhang. But he expressed confidence that he can get it sorted out soon.
“We think we’ll be able to show the shareholders that their faith in this project was well earned,” he said.
Once the future of Miwah is secured, he looks forward to leaving the CEO job for someone else. “I’m 66. I won’t be doing this for too much longer,” he promised.
----------------------------------
Good for you Mr. Ed R.
*cheers*
Miwah Sisters