Project proponents – management and funding

The National Editorial

By FRANK SENGE KOLMA
[email protected]
PART 2 (continued)
IN a special brief to parliamentarians, gold project company Refinery Holdings Pte Ltd said it would provide the initial management teams who would progressively transfer over and become employed or engaged within the National Gold Corporation Group.
The company also provided its funding estimates for the entire project and a first-100-day plan.
There is a very important condition to all the financing requirement and all other preparations; and that is that everything remain conditional upon the two project bills being approved by Parliament.
These we include in this third part of our conversation.
Three persons are named as comprising the Executive Management Team. They are Michael Boyd, James Scobie and Dr Michael Dyson.
Boyd and Scobie were present and signed the project agreement in October 2021.
The corporate profile of each of these executives appear here as they were given in the parliamentary briefing: “Mr Boyd has been involved in the creation of new enterprises both in the private and public sectors for more than 30 years. He has been successful in developing and growing new projects in diverse areas including healthcare, telecommunications and finance.
“Mr Boyd is a Chartered Accountant and started Foundation Healthcare, growing it to more than 800 healthcare professionals before it was acquired by Sonic Healthcare Ltd (Sonic).
“He was a founding Director and Chairman of Sonic which is now an ASX-listed TOP 50 company.
“He was also a founding partner of Iridium Satellite bringing it out from bankruptcy to now a NASDAQ-listed company.
“Mr Boyd is a billionaire and is recognised each year in the Australian Business Review Top 200 wealthiest businessmen.
“Refinery Holdings is financially backed and funded by a syndicate of some of Australia’s most wealthy and successful businessmen, and wealthy family offices. The syndicate is managed by Mr Boyd.”
This syndicate is closed, for now, to PNG purview as no mention of it has been stated anywhere.
Scobie is said to have more than 25 years of experience as a business owner and senior manager in various listed and non-listed companies in the Asia-Pacific.
“Mr Scobie’s expertise in respect to gold goes back more than 20 years, including managing participation in acquisition and funding of joint venture interests in exploration, bullion trading and value-adding projects, and corporate structuring and financing of those projects. In respect to the National Gold Corporation Project, he has established the close working relationships with the PNG Government and Ministers, departments and agencies at the highest levels in respect to the project presentation, development and approval processes and formed and managed the Project team of international experts in 2012 which, since then, had developed the full Project concept and corporate design for the National Gold Corporation.”
Scobie formed and, together with Dr Dyson, has managed the Project team and developed the concept and corporate design since 2012.
Dr Dyson is introduced as a lawyer and business consultant with particular focus on and expertise in large-scale natural resource developments and infrastructure projects, commodities trading and financing, and downstream processing and value-added projects across a wide range of industries.
Dr Dyson’s expertise in gold extends for more than 35 years around the world and includes international regulatory and related compliance regimes and policies of recognised accreditation organisations, including the London
Bullion Market Association (LBMA).
Finally, Refinery Holdings is responsible for arranging the Project Financing Facilities required for the construction and operation of the National Gold Corporation Group. The summary provided by the group is as follows:
(a) US$160 million (K615mil at US$0.26 to the Kina) – construction cost for the initial Refinery and Mint facilities, and associated infrastructure and offices, at Jackson International Airport and the LNG Park.
(b) US$20 million (K77mil) for initial general working capital until the Project becomes self-funding.
(c) US$20 million (K77mil) for initial working capital for:

  • THE initial production of international standard gold and silver bullion bars stamped with the PNG National Emblem for sale to domestic and international bullion markets, and investors;
  •  THE commencement of the new National Bird of Paradise PNG legal tender, international investment grade gold and precious metals currency coin programme; and
  • THE initial issue of the new National Gold Notes backed by the Bird of Paradise coins.
    (d) US$20 million (K77mil) for initial Project equity which is estimated to be required as part of the terms of the Project Financing Facilities.
    (e) US$5-7 billion (K19-K27 billion) per year “gold inventory” financing facility once the Project is fully operational and to fund:
  • THE National Gold Refinery’s purchase of gold and precious metals refining throughput, from PNG and non-PNG sources;
  • THE National Gold Refinery’s purchase of refined international investment grade gold and silver bullion bars made by the Refinery from gold and silver mined or recovered in PNG;
  • THE National Gold Refinery’s production and manufacture of gold products for industrial use and jewelry manufacture;
  •  THE National Gold Refinery’s further refining of gold and silver bullion to the highest international investment grades of purity for supply as gold and silver coin blanks to the National Mint; and,
  • THE National Mint’s commercial activities, including production and minting of the new National Bird of Paradise PNG legal tender, international investment grade, gold and precious metals currency coins.

While the project agreement was signed in October 2021, it is obvious from the conversation so far that the project has been gestating for 10 years.
During this time, Refinery Holdings claims that both the former O’Neill and the Marape Governments “made due diligence and other inquiries almost continuously concerning the company, its directors and financial backers, and the skills and resources available to the broader Refinery Holdings Project implementation team”.
This then makes an iron-cast case for the State to be committed to the project and we conclude the project proponents side to this debate at this point.

Tomorrow:
The Project Opponents