Date : February 3, 2004
Move By Michael Thomsen To Chair Hereward Ventures Encourages Debate Over Futures of Hereward And Cambridge Minerals, Its Sister Company.

Interesting to see that Michael Thomsen has been appointed non-executive chairman of AIM listed Hereward Ventures. He has been involved in the natural resource industry for over twenty five years and has worked in over thirty countries with Newmont Mining, Gold Fields and Freeport-McMoRan. Quite a pedigree, so why is he getting involved in little Hereward which is only capitalised at 5.5 million? The answer to this question is possibly best answered by taking a look at Herewards sister company Cambridge Minerals. Here Michael Thomsen is executive chairman, having joined the company after Newmont, where he was world-wide director of exploration, turned down the possibility of a joint venture at its Lomero-Poyatos polymetallic project in Spain.

It would be well nigh impossible for one man to be executive chairman of two listed AIM companes without subjecting himself to claims of conflicts of interest. Agreed, Cambridge Minerals operates in western Europe and Hereward Ventures in the east with its projects in Bulgaria and Serbia, but even the cleverest man in the world would be hard pushed to convince two sets of shareholders that he spent equal time on both companies. The logical conclusion has to be that this move presages a merger between the two companies. This would make a lot of sense as both companies have trailed a bit behind the current excitement in the junior mining sector.

Logical conclusions do not always work out as anyone will know who has followed the saga of Lord Hutton. The two companies have a virtually identical board of directors and this would make it difficult for them to come up with merger terms which suited all shareholders. Also the market capitalisation of Cambridge is about three times that of Hereward which would mean considerable dilution of the exposure to eastern Europe. It is here that a degree of lateral thinking is required. Cambridge Minerals is virtually a one project company , though its option over the neighbouring San Telmo group of exploitation permits is thought to offer additional potential as these concessions were host to mines which produced more than 14 million tonnes of copper and zinc ore in their time. The company has been testing a technology aimed at producing copper and zinc from mine waters in the St Barbara pit at San Telmo. This may come to something, but more excitement has been generated by reports of surface sampling which has returned grades as high as 9 g/t gold.

Cambridge is also on record as saying it has no intention of getting involved in development, simply in maximising the value of its assets. That being the case the ideal solution might be to sell Cambridge for shares to a cashed up listed company raring to develop its own mine. The conceptual mining study carried out by SRK Consultants towards the end of 2003 came up with some robust rates of return for the project which it valued at twice Cambridges current market capitalisation. And that was at a time when gold was only US$312/oz. The result would be that Cambridge shareholders would have continuing exposure to Spain as well as to any other projects brought to the party by the acquirer. The directors could then concentrate on Hereward rather than trying to split themselves between two companies.

Michael Thomsen is clearly enthused by what he has seen during a recent visit to Herewards exploration permits and planned exploration programmes in Bulgaria and Serbia. He reckons the company controls a number of very prospective gold projects and permits and is quoted as saying, In Bulgaria, the Tashlaka Hill gold deposit on the Rosino permit and the Chaira gold deposit on the Dobroselets permit are very interesting mineralised systems with strong upside potential. In Serbia, the Ivan Kula permit hosts a high grade gold-silver deposit that is open along strike and at depth. The exploration permits held in both countries also contain a number of early stage gold prospects in a variety of geologic settings which offer excellent targets.

Clearly this very experienced explorer is not at all phased by the fact that Gold Fields has walked away from the joint ventures in Bulgaria. The major needs at least 2 million ounces of gold as its attributable reserve from any project and wants to see cash costs of production down to around US$200/oz, but a smaller operation can be equally profitable for a junior company. Anyway the parting of the ways was amicable ; Gold Fields retains a 7 per cent shareholding in Hereward; and Hereward now has 100 per cent of the projects. Countries like Bulgaria and Serbia have a mining history, but are underexplored. The future of Hereward as an entity without any distraction from Cambridge is seductive and it appears that Michael Thomsen may be willing to take a big bet on it.

7 Feb 2008 . . .abt 2.5p-ish today
C'mon - this is a time-issue - - folks want it "now" and the price spikes on News - then as there is little likleyhood of further news ( at least for a few months IMHO) It's the lack of further news, which means there are no "new" buyers - and the MM's drop the price....

Until CMR has some metal to show us, this situation will prevail.

Yes, 12p would be nice, but expect some spikes above this; until the Market remembers the debt/equity issues....

20Feb08 - sp similar - but General Meeting called and from what I read this looks like dilutuion - again . . . Grief, can't they find some metal?

These financiers want Gold and Equity . . . . perhaps CMR should restrict their operation in view of the credit crunch - at least until there is metal. Then the other sites can be brought on-stream with CMR-money.

I don't like the constant demand for fresh Cash!
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .No, not a bit of it. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
-And, I wonder that earlier Equity stakers are very excited, either.

Seems somewhat careless.
Oh dear.

May be time, as it sits at it's lows, to start buying these as they should soon move into production.

mm
As you say production very soon, toped up yesterday.

Just Out

Pretty balanced Report, that makes the situation clear.

(Although it brings no new inforation)
However, I'm not sure they are saying "Buy" - and the sp has hardly moved in ages, other than down!!!

I am still concerned that CMR-Directors wouldn't raise that £350k between them! So, I wonder if this isn't going to be somewhat smaller than many would like....if it's huge, then I already have enough ( av. 6p) . . . "Don't be greedy" is ringing in my ears!

L2 moved up now 4 v 2