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.

Naughty, naughty Currypasty, you haven't shown the whole story.

I agree the chart looks better and the recent high volumes give some degree of hope but we really need a clean break of 14p to clear resistance - you might then see 17/20p. We have been here before and there is a lot of us longterm holders just itching to ditch this pile of sh*te on the way back up before the management has the chance to screw it up yet again.

I see HEV shareholders are suitably impressed by the news.

I havent told any story, or even given an opinion on here (yet), simple posted a RNS, and pasted a graph !!

CMR have been a dog in the past, and I remember trading them at 30p. Since then they have had a long and steady decline, as have many shares since the good old days of 3 years ago. However the takover rumour is well substantiated, and its clear that IF it comes off, it will be at a much higher price. I agree however it is possible for it to all come to nothing, and the 14p chart resistance is important.

CMR definitely at an interesting price now - will it break through the August 2003/March 2002 highs ?

BTW Currypasty - when I said 'whole story' I was relating to the chart. If you had displayed a 12 or 18 month chart the break to 13p would not have seemed so spectacular. No offence meant.

ok, q !! lol

LONDON (AFX) - Shares in Cambridge Mineral Resources ticked higher after the company said it will start drilling at the Lomero-Poyatos project in southern Spain on Feb 16.

It will also drill on targets at the San Telmo Permit, held under option, located to the west of Lomero-Poyatos. At San Telmo, Cambridge holds an option agreement over a group of 34 exploitation permits. Historical production data indicates that about 14 metric tonnes of ores containing gold, silver, copper and zinc have been mined in the area.

This thread has been awfully quiet for some time now - much like the CMR SP. Anyone hold any views on progress within 2005?

I think it's the company CMR that's gone quiet - A few years ago I thought they bought an existing gold-mine in the south of Spain (was it?) and that would lead to great wealth - well it hasn't (see sp graph) and unless the bosses start speaking I shall suspect they've run off with the gold to somewhere where interpol can reach (er, as it were).

The thought of amalgamating two dull-performers to create one bright-star is fanciful. I'm always suspicious of Directors having too many irons (etc) and events would seem to support this. When a co is well-established then directors need only dictate overall policy as their managers can deal with day-to-day events.....but Small companies need concentrated and dedicated effort, that's why we pay the directors so much - not so they can Jolly themselves at our expense....
Regards.

A good day today, up 10% so far on no news that I can see. If it can break the 10p barrier we could be on our way north for some time to come!

Now, this should get things going:

LONDON (AFX) - Cambridge Mineral Resources PLC said it has discovered gold at its Polski Gradets license area in Bulgaria.

The site, covering over 82 square kilometres, is located near the town of Topolovgrad in central Bulgaria.

'Exploration has led to the discovery of a style of gold mineralization little recognised in Bulgaria which has strong affinities to the world class Carlin-type gold deposits of Nevada,' said the company.

A drilling programme is being planned and is to be completed over the summer.

Cambridge Minerals is pursuing the project jointly with Ivanhoe Mines Ltd which is funding for the exploration work.

Anyone else grabed a quick buck on this one this morning...

MM spread not what it appears...

Anyone got ideas on what's moved it?

666

Good news from operations in Bulgaria:

Colin Andrew, Managing Director said:

'This discovery is causing great excitement amongst our technical staff as it
may be the first discovery of sediment-hosted gold mineralization of possible
Carlin-type in Bulgaria. The potential at Vladimirovo is excellent and we
eagerly await the next stage of exploration drilling in Spring 2006.'

Some more good news:

Cambridge Mineral Resources plc ('CMR' or 'the Company'), the mining exploration
and production company, announces the results of its initial exploration diamond
drilling programme at Tashlaka Hill South on its Rosino Permit located in
south-eastern Bulgaria. The Rosino permit forms part of the joint venture with
Asia Gold Corp which is currently farming into the concession and funding the
development programme. The initial results from this target are very encouraging
and indicate the presence of significant gold/silver mineralization.

The drilling programme was designed to test a newly recognised target at the
southern margin of the Tashlaka Hill project where a sinuous zone of
silicification extending for some 650m in an east-northeasterly direction and
some 20-50m broad at outcrop within Palaeogene sediments had been mapped. The
Company believes that this silicification has many geological similarities to
the shallow silica 'flood' or sinter formed in the near surface environment of
precious metal-bearing epithermal systems. In these systems precious metals are
often developed some 75 to 150m below such silica and drilling was targeted at
the shallower parts of the system.

Diamond drilling, for a total of 1,293.3m in six hole completions, intersected
the silica target in all holes, but only in hole R-239a did the zone show
textures indicative of the deeper parts of epithermal systems. The remaining
holes appear to have intersected the zone at levels exhibiting geological
characteristics considered to be indicative of shallow levels and above the
precious metal zone.

Hole R-239a intersected 9.0m @ 1.29 g/t Au, 40 g/t Ag from 223.6m within
chalcedonic and brecciated amethystine quartz, a style of mineralization not
seen hitherto at Tashlaka, and typical of epithermal vein systems around the
world. Unusually for Tashlaka, the high silver to gold ratio suggests that the
system cut in R-239a is still above the gold-rich zone. Other holes hit broad
low grade gold-silver mineralization including 11.0m @ 0.46 g/t Au, 12 g/t Ag
from 127.2m in R-240 within an intersection of 73.8m @ 0.24 g/t Au, 10 g/t Ag.

Further drilling is planned for the second quarter of 2006 to target the
silicified vein-breccia zone at greater depths below surface and deeper within
the epithermal system where better gold grades may be anticipated.

Asia Gold can earn up to an 80% interest in four of CMR's exploration permits in
Bulgaria by funding work totalling US$4,000,000, in two stages. Stage one
requires Asia Gold to complete expenditures of US$2,000,000 prior to 27 May 2007
in order to earn a 51% interest. To date, stage one earn-in expenditures
totalling US$1.14 million have been completed. Asia Gold is required to fund a
further US$0.86 million of exploration to complete the stage one earn-in. Upon
completion of the first stage earn-in, Asia Gold has the option to earn an
additional 29% interest in the four permits, giving a total of 80%, by
completing further exploration expenditures totalling US$2,000,000 before 27 May
2009.

Colin Andrew, Managing Director, Cambridge Minerals commented:

'This drilling programme has confirmed the discovery of a new, unexplored
epithermal system at Tashlaka Hill. We believe that the potential in this new
zone is excellent and we eagerly await the results of the next drilling
programme which will test the depth extension of the system in what we expect
will be a precious metal-rich zone.'

Could recent director purchases signal good news around the corner?

Bought into these today, lets see what happens!!

Welcome on board andysmith!

Still a strong market in CMR on the back of recent director purchases.

Don't think the sp shows much "strength" - indeed it's down 6% and looks a bit off-colour at 3.6p if not actually iron pyrotic.
Oh dear and I thought Gold was in such demand.
Time for believers to Buy cheaply but Sales are quite strong, why would they?

A bit more selling: 2.5p Oh dear and I'm still holding the paper.
Significant % fall today(Thursday), maybe ahead of something or other?

nice move today - good news too

return to 5/6 p perhaps.