PERTH entrepreneur Bill Clough is preparing for the public float of his Brazilian gold mining venture Serabi Mining on the Alternative Investment Market of the London Stock Exchange.
PERTH entrepreneur Bill Clough is preparing for the public float of his Brazilian gold mining venture Serabi Mining on the Alternative Investment Market of the London Stock Exchange.
Mr Clough is seeking up to £8 million ($20 million) for the venture, which is already stockpiling ore from an existing underground operation that Serabi wants to significantly expand.
The move to go public has been driven by unexpectedly strong equity markets and high interest in gold, according to Mr Clough, who has had a good year with investments such as Mirabela Nickel, where he is non-executive chairman.
ASX-listed Mirabela shares have doubled since the stock was listed in early 2004, jumping from the subscription price of 20 cents per share to the 50 cent mark where it was trading this week.
Mr Clough is non-executive chair-man of Mirabela, which bought its Brazilian assets from interests asso-ciated with the Perth businessman.
Among Mr Clough’s other listed resource interests are strong 2004 performers Exco Resources and Sally Malay Mining.
His non-resources interests include a salvage company that identifies marine wrecks for artefact recovery.
Speaking from Myanmar where he has an interest in newspaper publisher The Myanmar Times and is examining prospects for investment in oil, Mr Clough told WA Business News the strength of equity markets had prompted the decision to list Serabi, where he has the role of managing director.
“Last year the market turned around for gold, subsequently the shareholders decided to look at going to the market to accelerate our program,” Mr Clough said.
“We are running the implemen-tation and listing in tandem.”
Serabi’s gold project is in the Tapajos Region of Para State, Brazil, where Mr Clough, a geologist and former director of listed engineering group Clough, has been a regular visitor for the past few years.
He said he had been drawn to the region after the collapse of Toronto-listed Bre-X over the scandal surrounding its Busang project in Borneo, which prompted a mass pull-out of Canada’s junior miners from emerging markets such as Brazil.
“I was impressed with the geology in Brazil and the dearth of other companies, except the major companies, which were looking for up-scale projects,” Mr Clough said.
Serabi expects to produce between 20,000 and 25,000 ounces of gold in the first 12 months and plans to double production after that.
The company has already raised £2.5 million in pre-float capital from investors in Perth and London.
London-based Serabi chairman Graham Roberts is overseeing the appointment of a nominated adviser for the AIM listing.
Mr Clough said another of his current projects, Twinza Oil, was very much in its infancy, though Myanmar’s resource regulatory framework is well established for dealing with foreign investment.
Mr Clough also heads Shipwreck Porcelain & Artefacts, a Singapore-based salvage business, whose work led to a successful auction recently held by Christies in Melbourne.
Many pieces auctioned were from a salvage operation earlier this year, authorised by the Vietnamese Government, which resulted in 17,000 artefacts being recovered from the wreckage of a 17th century Chinese/Vietnamese vessel near the coast of Bin Thuan province.
Mr Clough said he was engaged in the salvage business because of the personal satisfaction from the effort, rather than the commercial gain, which was negligible.
He said tracking down historical wrecks through a historian employed in the Netherlands, as well as negotiating with governments, was part of the interest but simply having the opportunity to dive was a key element of this business.
“We spent a week diving on the wreck in Vietnam, it was just fabulous.”
SNAPSHOT – BILL CLOUGH
- Seeking about $20 million for UK float of Serabi Mining on AIM.
- Serabi has Brazilian gold interests and is aiming for production of up to 25,000 ounces within 12 months.
- Chairs Mirabela Nickel, a 2004 float success with Brazilian assets he vended in to the listing.
- Runs a South-East Asian historical marine salvage business.
- Interests in publishing and oil in Myanmar.
