KATE EMERY, The West Australian November 10, 2011, 6:31 am
WA's gold miners should not expect to find themselves on Evolution Mining's shopping list any time soon, although chairman Jake Klein has left the door open to using the group's soon-to-be $215 million cash pile to fund acquisitions.
Speaking as Evolution pulled the trigger on a well-flagged $152.5 million entitlement offer, Mr Klein said there were opportunities in the Australasian region but he was in no hurry to move on them.
"We don't have any target to grow our ounces, we have a target to grow the quality of our ounces and that means that the lens through which we'll be looking at acquisitions is whether they reduce our cash costs," he said.
"I don't see easy opportunities for listed company acquisitions. I don't rule it out but it wouldn't be the first place we'd be looking."
He said Evolution's relationship with 33 per cent shareholder Newcrest Mining gave it a competitive advantage that could result in it picking up projects identified by Newcrest that were too small for Australia's biggest gold miner.
Evolution, formed through the friendly merger of Catalpa Resources and Conquest Mining, will be Australia's third biggest gold miner by the end of 2013 if it hits its production targets.
Proceeds of yesterday's three-for-17 entitlement offer - directors will take up all or part of their entitlement - will be used to fund work on the group's Mt Carlton and Edna May operations in Queensland and WA, respectively. It is priced at $1.45 a share or a 15.7 per cent discount to its last trade at $1.72.
