PATIENCE TESTED AT CUDECO

DESPITE a falling share price following news that listed copper miner Cudeco has stalled its resource update on its Rocklands project, chairman Wayne McCrae is confident the proof will be in the pudding.

Giddy shareholders sent shares spiralling 14 per cent yesterday to $4.15 before recovering at noon today to $4.50.

McCrae apologised to investors for the delay, due to  an announced underestimation of cobalt grades at the copper deposit. But he always belived the update was premature.

“I think when the upgraded resource is completed, there’s a possible likelihood that the company will come into play. This is just a personal feeling, nothing else, however, I would have preferred to have completed at least another 12-18 months of drilling before requesting our consultants complete an update resource," he says.

“There is so much more to be drilled and proven up and upgrading on areas and zones already identified as new targets. I personally cannot see the reasoning for bringing out a new updated resource until we had at least drilled out some of these new targets and done some deeper drilling on the zones of mineralisation we had already discovered.

“We set out after the publication of our last resource in 2006 to increase the category of the resource and upgrade the category from inferred to measured and indicated. That is the 30mt already announced to the market."

McRae says CuDeco’s new complex in Cloncurry is ahead of time, under budget and should be ready for use in the coming weeks, pending a mining permit from the Department of Natural Resources, Mines and Energy Minister Stephen Robertson.

Don’t miss an exclusive interview with Wayne McCrae in this month's issue of Gold Coast Business News – out now in more than 450 greater Gold Coast newsagencies.