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Liberty Mines Inc. is
focused on the exploration and production of nickel and cobalt from its properties near
Timmins, Ontario, Canada
Mining
(LBE-TSX)
Liberty Mines Inc.
1662 Valentine Garden
Mississauga, ON Canada L5J 1H5
Phone: 416-238-9736
Dr. Gary Nash, BSc (Hons), PhD
President, CEO and Director
Interview conducted by:
Lynn Fosse, Senior Editor
CEOCFOinterviews.com
November 3, 2005
BIO:
Dr. Gary Nash, BSc (Hons), PhD
President, CEO and Director
Dr. Gary Nash, BSc (Hons), PhD in Mathematical Physics is a businessman with a keen
interest in mineralogy and the genesis of mineral deposits. His current interest is
focused on the physics of komatiite flows. Dr. Nash has developed a conceptual physical
model of the komatiite flow from the Redstone area to the Langmuir mines with particular
application of the laws of hydrodynamics to better understand how the pods of Ni
mineralization could form on Liberty’s properties. He also brings the necessary
project management experience to Liberty being an Edmonton based real estate developer and
contractor for the past 27 years.
Company Profile:
Liberty Mines Inc. is focused on the exploration and production of nickel and cobalt from
its properties near Timmins Ontario, Canada.
The Redstone nickel mine is in the process of being brought into production with the
McWatters property anticipated to be next in line to produce nickel.
The McAra Lake property near Shining Tree, 100 km south of Timmins, hosts a system
averaging approximately 4% cobalt. The property has been minimally explored and will the
subject of an intense drill program to prove up tonnage of this unusually rich cobalt
resource.
Cash flow generated from the Redstone mine will allow development and exploration of Liberty's
properties to be essentially self-financing. The management team is focused on developing
and exploring these assets under this premise.
CEOCFO: Dr. Nash, there have been some changes at Liberty
this past year; will you bring us up to date?
Dr. Nash: “We changed management completely on March 22nd.
There was a group of investors that were unhappy with the way the company was being run
before that. Some properties were being sold off that should not have been. We banded
together and got a group of individuals that were knowledgeable about the mining business
and how to run a company, and we took over the management and have had some good success
since. We have raised a lot of capital as needed and we have our permits to bring Redstone
mine into production. De-watering is about one third finished now and we will be totally
finished in about two months, and production can begin subsequently thereafter.”
CEOCFO: On which
minerals are you focusing?
Dr. Nash: “We intend to be a primary producer of both
nickel and cobalt. Generally, cobalt is found as a by-product of nickel mines and comes in
grades of .01 to .04 percent. We have a cobalt property that is running about four percent
on average compared to some of the more lucrative known deposits on earth like at the
Belgium Congo, which have deposits that run half a percent. Our deposit, although it is
quite small now, is very rich. We are doing an extensive exploration program to develop
and extend the size of our deposit. We have only looked at a very small part of the
property over about 200 meters. We are in an unusual position of being able to be a
primary producer of cobalt, in addition to being a producer of nickel. We have two-nickel
properties. One was a previously producing mine called the Redstone Mine. We also have a
property called the McWatters property for which we just finished the 43-101 resource
calculation. We expect to bring that into production next year as well as doing some
exploration on it this fall in order to enhance the resource there. A one-kilometer
potential strike length to it has not properly been investigated, so we want to finish
that before we do any actual mining there. The two events should coincide with the
exploration and the procuring of all the permits necessary to bring it into production.”
CEOCFO: What is the
market for nickel and cobalt?
Dr. Nash: “Nickel and cobalt have been fantastic,
particularly nickel. Nickel went up to the high sixes or seven dollars U.S. per lb., which
is an historic high. Cobalt has been down a little from where it was but it is still in
the fifteen to twenty dollars per lb. U.S., so they are very valuable metals. When you
consider the grades that we have vs. the prices, and compare it to a gold deposit of the
same tonnage, you will find that the nickel and cobalt deposits are very valuable.”
CEOCFO: Do you have
platinum in the mix as well for the company?
Dr. Nash: “Yes, in the nickel resources, we have good
credits of platinum and palladium. They are not rich in it but they are certainly worth
millions of dollars a year. We want to make sure that the process and the contracts we
have provide us to get the revenue from that because it is significant.”
CEOCFO: Is the
diversification of metals important?
Dr. Nash: “With Liberty being a potentially primary
producer of each metal and the fact that the two metals do not necessarily go up or down
in the same cycle, we do have some diversification there with some good PGM credits.”
CEOCFO: What is the
financial picture going forward?
Dr. Nash: “We are in the process of doing about a $2
million private placement. It will either be done as flow through shares or a convertible
debenture and possibly a small amount of non-flow through shares. It is a bridge financing
to a $4 million credit facility we have with our Chinese strategic partner. If we build a
mill, both financings would apply to that. We are in good shape. The market had a good run
here and we will take advantage of it.”
CEOCFO: Do you expect to
be involved with the production?
Dr. Nash: “Absolutely! The whole focus of us taking over
the company is to change it to a producing company. That is why we changed the name of the
company from Liberty Mineral Explorations Inc, to Liberty Mining Inc., knowing that we
have the two nickel mines and the cobalt mine that we can bring into production shortly.
We also have ten thousand hectares in and around our nickel mines. We just purchased some
cobalt properties down in Ray Township with several surface showings on it. They are
running about .3 to .5 percent nickel and cobalt each separately. Being on the surface,
they are very perspective deposits to have to be explored. We are going to work very
diligently on the nickel and cobalt fronts.”
CEOCFO: Do you need to
put in much infrastructure in the mines?
Dr. Nash: “With the Redstone Mine, the extensive part of
the infrastructure is already in place. There is a fourteen-kilometer power line to the
property, a ramp down into the mine at the 800 ft. level and there is fully developed
lateral developments at the 600-750 ft. levels. There is 182 thousand tonnes of ore
previously drilled off by the previous owners. We have the value of that work and can go
down and get the ore that has already been drilled off. It is then our job to prove out
more resources below. Inco has done some good geophysics down there. They had an option
that we purchased from them back in December. They found an anomaly at the 4000 ft. level,
which is about 250 by 450 meters in dimension. It is in an ore grade hole down at the
3935ft. level. In their words, they thought it would be a very prospective section of the
mine to be drilled with considerable tonnage that could be developed. At the 2500 ft.
level in the Redstone Mine, there are four holes typically grading 2.76 percent nickel
over about 19 feet. We have drilled at 1500 feet and found the same grades over 42 feet.
We know there is excellent development potential between the 1100-foot and the 3900 foot
levels. That could be considerable tonnage in the mine and a definite company maker for Liberty.”
CEOCFO: Will you need to
add additional personnel once you get to the mining phase?
Dr. Nash: “We have already done that and have hired a
mine manager. I have considerable project management experience myself being in the
construction business here in the Edmonton area for 27 years. Our mining contractor is one
of the Directors onboard, so he will be bringing his company in to do all of the
underground work and is currently doing de-watering for us. We have several local
contractors already enlisted to do various jobs including the building of a mill for us
when we feel it is prudent to do so. We have everything aligned to do whatever we have to
do in the long term and in the short term.”
CEOCFO: Why should
potential investors be interested in Liberty?
Dr. Nash: “They should be interested because we have
taken all steps to become a producer. Typically, a junior mine excites the market with
their drilling or exploration program, their stock goes up, they raise a little money, and
they drill it because it is grassroots. They generally do not find anything and the stock
goes back down. The cycle repeats itself. Junior mining companies typically do not last
longer than five or ten years because the story gets old and their properties are
exhausted and they cannot find better ones. They change their names, restructure and do
something else and on they go. We are fortunate to have all these known resources and we
can make cash flow with them. We are a junior mining company now but we are not a junior
exploration company anymore. We are taking an old producing mine and putting it into
production. We also have a grassroots exploration property that has been drilled off and
now we have another resource put into production as well. We have bridged the gap from a
pure exploration company to being a producer. We have the diversification of metals, the
will, the desire and skills to do all of this.”
CEOCFO: In closing,
where do you expect to be next year in the production phase?
Dr. Nash: “We are going into production at Redstone. We
intend to bring the McWatters and the McAra cobalt mine into production next year. We
expect roughly speaking by this time next year to be into the production phase with three
different mines.”
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