Monarch Gold rescue delayed againPETER KLINGER, The West...

Monarch Gold rescue delayed again
PETER KLINGER, The West Australian December 24, 2009, 6:20 am



Michael Kiernan.

BLOOMBERG NEWS / RON D'RAINE

Michael Kiernan's $15 million plan to secure the assets of collapsed miner Monarch Gold Mining has again been delayed, with settlement now not expected until the end of next month.

Mr Kiernan has also scaled back the size of a rights issue, to fund the acquisition of the Monarch assets, from about $19 million to $9.8 million because the delay prompted him to instead secure some debt funding.

The businessman said yesterday he did not expect settlement on the Monarch deal until January 31, a month later than planned, because efforts by his listed company, Stirling Resources, to raise the necessary funds had been hampered by intervention from the Australian Securities & Investments Commission.

ASIC took issue with Stirling's original rights issue prospectus and demanded that the Kiernan company include more historic data relating to the Monarch assets' past performance.

The information has now been included in the revised one-for-one rights issue prospectus, which was lodged this week to kick-start a $9.8 million fund-raising. The non-underwritten issue is priced at 15 a share, equal to Stirling's close yesterday.

Mr Kiernan said he and Austrian commodities trader DCM DECOmetal, who combined control about 35 per cent of Stirling, would take up their full entitlements.

It remains unclear whether Kalgoorlie businessman Garry Connell, who took about 13 per cent of Stirling stock this week, will also take up his rights.

Most of the proceeds of the rights issue will go towards finalising the $15 million settlement with Monarch's administrator Bryan Hughes, of Pitcher Partners.

Mr Kiernan said he expected to be back in production at Monarch's Carnegie project north-west of Kalgoorlie-Boulder, which incorporates the Davyhurst mill, within 30 days.

The other key asset includes the small but high-grade Mt Ida underground project.