Poll named to head Caeneus
UPDATE 10am: Former Mirabela Nickel boss Nick Poll will be parachuted in as Caeneus Minerals’ new managing director after the company’s surprise $2.7 million deal for the Silver Swan nickel mine yesterday.
Caeneus shares seesawed this morning after emerging from a trading halt as the Tony Sage-backed minnow announced it would seek to raise $6 million via a capital raising at 2 cents a share.
Mr Poll founded Mirabela with Craig Burton and Bill Clough in 2004 and led the discovery of the Santa Rita project in Brazil – considered at the time the world’s largest nickel sulphide discovery in more than a decade.
Caeneus’ company secretary and non-executive director Keith Bowker will assume the role of chairman.
Mr Sage, the Perth Glory owner and resources industry veteran who used the shell of Matrix Metals to acquire privately owned Caeneus Minerals in 2013, will resign from the board.
Yesterday’s deal with Poseidon Nickel is for $1.35 million, due by August 1, plus the issue of 10.7 million shares at 1.4 cents each, worth $150,000.
Caeneus has also agreed to reimburse Poseidon $1.2 million in care and maintenance costs for Silver Swan.
The mine, 55km north-east of Kalgoorlie-Boulder, neighbours Poseidon’s Black Swan open-pit mine and was mothballed by Norilsk Nickel in February 2009 in the wake of the global financial crisis.
Under the agreement, Caeneus will be granted a right to mine, remove and sell nickel ore above a grade of 2 per cent and undertake exploration from the existing underground decline below a depth of 100m.
Poseidon and Caeneus also intend to enter into an offtake agreement for the ore which Poseidon will process, either through its Lake Johnston or Black Swan concentrators after they are re-commissioned.
Shares in Caeneus initially jumped 5 per cent to 1.8 cents this morning, but were down 5.88 per cent at 1.6 cents at 10am.
Poseidon, which is seeking to restart the Lake Johnston, Black Swan and Windarra nickel mines, was trading 3.57 per cent higher at 14.5 cents.
