A spin off from the successful Pan-African Mining Company, African Queen Mines is now exploring for gold and other metals in a variety of areas of Africa, including Kenya, Ghana and Mozambique.
Irwin Olian, President and CEO of African Queen Mines, is pleased by their quick success. He said, “African Queen represents the same business model that we successfully used for Pan-African Mining that was acquired by Asia Thai Mining Co., Ltd for $4.50 per share. We actually had 22 different properties and chose three to develop, one of which was the Sakoa coal project. That provided a very handsome return for those investors who had bought shares at $ 0.01 per share.”
A spin off from Pan-African, African Queen Mines has taken the properties that the buyers of Pan-African were not involved in and moved toward developing them. Olian said, “The buyers were only interested in the Madagascar properties. The other properties were spun out into African Queen Mining. We spun out African Queen Mines.”
Like many other companies, African Queen Mines has seen changes to their stock price due to the changes in the market. Olian said, “Today, after the collapse of the markets, we are trading at $0.20 per share and went up to 75 cents then went back to 10 cents and now we are moving to more reasonable levels. Perhaps we were overbought. The collapse in the price was unprecedented in our eyes.” Olian believes that the company is in better shape now than when the share prices were higher. He said, “The company is doing better now in terms of development at 20 cents than it was at 75 cents.”
This may be due to the fact that African Queen has experienced management. Said Olian, “Most of our geologists have twenty to thirty years experience – people with experience working for the majors, and who have all had major discoveries in their careers. I believe top mining companies have to have technical knowledge to handle the geology and we have that. Our management team has a proven record of success. In the mining industry our process has been shown to be successful.”
African Queen Mines Geological Team
Ø Peter Siegfried, P.Geol. (M.Sc., MAusIMM), Senior Consulting Geologist, Qualified Person under N.I. 43-101 with over 20 years exploration experience in Southern Africa. Project Manager for Mozambique and Kenya projects and overall exploration manager for the Company.
Ø Dr. Andy Moore, VP Exploration, Senior diamond geologist specializing in the application of Geochemistry and Geomorphology to Kimberlitic exploration. Over 25 years experience, largely in Africa, having worked on major exploration projects for the highly successful Falconbridge diamond team, which discovered five virgin kimberlite fields in Botswana, and consulted for a wide range of companies including , Rio Tinto, Trans Hex Group and de Beers.
Ø Ardito Martohardjono, Director, VP Lab Services, experienced supervisor of sample preparation and quality control with North America’s leading geo-chemical laboratories.
Ø Henri Razananirina, Senior Geophysicist for African Queen Mines and Country Manager for Kenya, Highly experienced geophysicist formerly served as Provincial Director of Energy & Mines, Fianarantsoa, Madagascar.
Ø Michael Kotoka, Senior Geologist and Country Manager for Ghana. On-Site project manager for the Noyem-Nyafoman Gold Project with more than 15 years experience, formerly with Newmont.
Ø Mike Othitis, Senior Exploration Geologist, P.Geol. AI, MA, Bsc., Qualified Person under N.I. 43-101. Project manager for the Rongo Gold Fields Project with excess of 25 years experience with African focus including 10 years experience in Kenya.
Ø Ms. Marthe Archambault, Senior Exploration Geologist, P.Geol., Qualified Person under N.I. 43-101. On-site project manager for Ugunga Gold Project with more than 17 years experience formerly with Pan African Mining Corp.
Olian is using his experience to develop African Queen with the same strategy as Pan-African Mines. “Building on Pan African, the African Queen business model is the same. We are acquiring projects in several different countries in Africa – Kenya, Ghana, and Mozambique.” Olian said.
We are focused on gold and metals projects in Kenya. Kenya is very interesting because it is adjacent to Tanzania. Tanzania has the Lake Victoria Green Belt. You'll find half a dozen very significant mines. We are just across the political border.”
Currently, African Queen is focused on two different projects. Said Olian, “We have projects called Odundu and Ugunja. We have just completed our initial core drilling program and are excited because we found a cogent body of ore that holds a very strong target. It all depends on grade. We think this will be a relatively low grade, but large body of ore.
Ugunja has a large vein area near the surface. We are waiting for rock sample trenching samples to come back, which have been very promising. We are expecting those samples back in mid-October for Odundu.”
Additional projects are on the horizon for African Queen. Olian said, “We feel we have an outstanding project in Kenya. Kenya is relatively under explored. Odundu is a farming area. We have seven or eight meters of topsoil and ground cover over the mineralized zone. The good news is that the ground cover has prevented exploitation and kept it a well-kept secret. The very obvious surface deposits have already been discovered. You have to be more creative to discover new deposits. That is what we are doing with African Queen.”
Ghana is another country that African Queen has found work. Olian said, “In Ghana, we have a joint venture with a Swiss group on that project. We have 60% interest. That project has a resource in excess of one million ounces established by Newmont. We just finished 2000 meters of drilling. We are excited to establish the resource as a 43-101 resource and are expanding it. That resource has established issues between the disputes of miners in the area – we've resolved 19 of 26 of them. This resource is robust.”
Finally, Olian and his team are following up on a project in Mozambique. He said, “In Mozambique, on the King Solomon Project, we have some good surface showings and some good drill holes. Up until now, we've been able to delineate a commercial ore body. We are seeing 1% to 2% copper with up to 1 oz. of gold. We are trying to find the heart of the deposit. Our geologists are looking into that right now. We have found a lot of smoke, and where there is a lot of smoke, there is usually fire. This is taking a back seat to our other projects.”
The spread of projects throughout several countries is what Olian believes will create success. He said, “Our business model is to acquire a lot of projects, choose some of those to pursue, and develop value for our shareholders. It's getting harder and harder to do that, but we are doing it. We get proposals almost daily for Africa. We are picking and choosing.”
One way that they keep moving forward is through careful fiscal management. Olian said, “Our management team has always had good access to capital. I expect that to continue. As always, my companies are always debt free. That is the case here. We manage our money very frugally. No fancy expenditures on cars or trips. We put all the money we raise into the ground. All of the people on our team have equity in the company and we pay competitive salaries. We have people who care about our company. We give stock options to our local managers. If they win, we win.”
They are so committed to a win-win agreement that African Queen has just assisted with community efforts to build a school. Olian said, “African Queen just reconstructed a school. The community has given us their full support. We are convinced that the only way to do business in Africa or elsewhere is by a win-win. That's what we strive to do.”
Capital Structure
Outstanding shares: 70,359,143
Options: 3,130,000
Warrants: 12,819,335
Fully diluted: 86,308,498
52 Wk. Range: 0.095 – 0.25 CAD
TSX Venture Exchange: AQ
Frankfurt: QM0
With a variety of projects spread over the African continent, African Queen is positioned to find diamonds and gold and move into additional areas of profitability.
http://www.africanqueenmines.com/
African Queen Mines Ltd.
Suite 1450, PO Box 11553
650 West Georgia Street
Vancouver, BC
V6B 4N8
CANADA
Tel: (604) 899-0100
Fax: (604) 899-0200
info@africanqueenmines.com