Frontier shares plunge on Kodu
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By BRIAN GOMEZ in Sydney
FRONTIER Resources shares crashed by 35.5%, or A$0.055, yesterday to A$0.10 following news that the PNG Government was not likely to renew the exploration permit covering the Kodu copper-gold deposit.
Frontier, which has spent K8 million to date in proving up a 276 million tonne copper resource at Kodu, had no immediate comment on the situation.
Frontier hit a recent high of A$0.16 on the Australian Stock Exchange last Friday but fell 3% last Monday to A$0.155 and hit a low of A$0.093 yesterday.
In a last ditch attempt to persuade the government to allow mining at Kodu to proceed – the deposit comes within 600m of the Kokoda Track – the company recently announced PNG stakeholders would receive 7% equity if Kodu could be mined.
It said Kodu deposit landowners, who would be directly impacted by any mining there, had decided to give 1% of their previously agreed 5% to all other landowners living near the Kokoda Track.
In addition Frontier said it would give 2% equity to be administered by the Kokoda Track Authority.
It said half of this would provide funding to operate, preserve and improve the Kokoda Trail and half to create an educational fund for all “Trail” and nearby landowners.
“This 3% equity could amount to tens of millions of dollars over the 10-year life of the mine, depending on costs, commodity prices and taxes. The fund will be subject to specific transparency, governance and board of directors’ representation provision by Frontier,” it said.
The Kodu project is Frontier’s most advanced exploration project. The company also has early stage exploration underway in West New Britain and in Tasmania.
Aside from being listed on the Australian Stock Exchange, Frontier Resources’ shares ares also traded also trade on the Frankfurt, Berlin and Munich Stock Exchanges.
As company policy, Frontier seeks to return significant value to its shareholders through the discovery, delineation and development of copper, gold and basemetal deposits in PNG and Australia.
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Code Notes TT
US$ 0.3440 0.3810
A$ 0.3704 0.4154
Pound 0.1725 0.1825
Euro 0.2253 0.2403
Sing$ 0.4798 0.5009
Peso 14.06 14.44