Romarco President Diane Garrett on SC Haile Gold Mine Permit Process
Romarco Minerals Inc TSX:R announced a permitting update for its Haile Gold Project in Lancaster County, South Carolina. The company has received a schedule from the US Army Corps of Engineers for completing the environmental impact statement for the Federal 404 Wetlands permit. The schedule is as follows:
Draft EIS to be filed by December 14, 2012
Draft EIS comment period begins December 14, 2012
Draft EIS Public Hearing to be held January 29, 2013
Draft EIS comment period ends February 28, 2013
Final EIS to be made public July 19, 2013
Record of Decision on permit to be made August 16, 2013
The Federal 404 Wetlands permit is the only federal permit Romarco requires for Haile, a past-producing gold mine, which has 43-101 gold resources of 4.04 million ounces measured and indicated and 801,000 ounces inferred. The Corps of Engineers is the federal agency regulating 404 permits. Other pending permits include the State 401 Water Quality Certification and the State Mine Operating permit. The regulating agency for these permits is the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control. DHEC will schedule its public hearing following the filing of the draft EIS by the Corps.
—Diane Garrett
President/CEO Diane Garrett tells ResourceClips.com, “A lot of permit applications go on and on with no dates available. So this is very good news. It’s longer than what we had hoped for, but, all and all, to have [this decision] and to have such firm dates provides a lot of clarity. Now everybody can monitor the progress and the different milestones that are achieved in the permit process. As soon we receive the permit, we will be mining and stockpiling ore. So we’ll start moving material very quickly, and then we’ll start the construction project. The construction will take 12 to 14 months to complete, and that will have us pouring gold in the first half of 2015. We’ll be ready when the permits come in.”
Romarco shares fell $0.20 (-24.7%) to $0.61 in response to the permit announcement. Garrett responds, “We are currently in a very bad market, where even good news gets punished. But we’ve been on the phone with all of all of major shareholders today, about 70% of the company, and they are glad to have the schedule. They are holding tight. They are confident in the asset, the team and the value we’ve created. [Some of our shareholders] do not have a patient timeline in their portfolios, as our larger institutional shareholders do, who are long-term value investors. And then there’s always some period selling from brokers and different retail individuals.”
Garrett continues, “Just to take a step back and look at the project as a whole, to the people in the market who are very selective about investments, this is a great asset, and it checks all the right boxes. We’re located in a politically stable jurisdiction. Haile is one of the highest-grade open-pit mines in the industry. It’s one of the lowest-cost gold mines in the industry. We have a top-notch, top-tier operating team in place. We have $93 million in the bank. We have put out outstanding drill results. That is what caused our stock to go from $0.20 to $2.70. From a $20-million market cap to over $1 billion. What’s happened with the deterioration of the stock is two-fold. First, we’re in bad market conditions; almost all companies have taken the big hit over the last six to eight months. But, second, everybody has focused on the permits, when they come in. We’re bringing gold mining back to the southeast United States, and there’s not been a recent gold mine there. And so for the most part the market is taking a wait-and-see approach to the permits.”
She concludes, “I believe this is going to be one of the most significant value creators in our sector, when these permits start coming, because we’re being so heavily discounted right now. And when they do come in, we’re going to start seeing value being paid for all the good drill results that we bring in and the growth of the resource.”
Contact:
Diane Garrett
President/CEO
210.621.4200
or Dan Symons
VP of Investor Relations
416.367.5500
Read a feature story about Romarco Minerals.
by Kevin Michael Grace
