When Vassilios Carellas resigned his position as managing director of Kryso Resources (LON:KYS) in May 2009, he jetted off to enjoy his first summer holiday for 15 years. However, shortly before he left, David Paxton, the chief executive of Vatukoula Gold Mines (LON:VGM) had a word in his ear about a potential new project. On his return, Carellas had barely unpacked his suitcase before finding himself back on a flight, this time to the historically rich volcanic gold fields of central Slovakia. When he got there, he liked what he saw.
By September 2010 the stage was set for a series of deals that involved private company Ortac Resources acquiring the Slovakian gold assets of TSX-listed Tournigan Energy (TSX:TVC). The company then completed a reverse takeover of AIM cash shell Templar Minerals. Ortac Resources (LON:OTC) , which kept its name, took on Templar’s modest iron ore assets in Brazil but, more importantly, secured the highly prospective Kremnica gold deposit in Slovakia.
Within days, Carellas brought in Snowden Mining Industry Consultants to re-work all the old data and launch a scoping study at Kremnica, where a resource of around 760,000 ounces of gold was already in place. In January, that assessment confirmed a JORC Code compliant resource of 1.1 million ounces of gold equivalent but Carellas remains keen to boost the resource even further. With £8.4m raised from investors in February, further drilling is planned this year and the company is looking closer at how production from the project will eventually work. In the mean time, Carellas has his eye on building out Ortac’s presence in Slovakia, perhaps with acquisitions, and taking the company’s resource base towards 2 million ounces.
Vassilios, how did events unfold in the lead up to bringing Ortac to AIM?
Ortac had been in Slovakia for six years prior to the reverse takeover. It had a number of exploration properties in the east of the country and it was basically in the right place at the right time in terms of Kremnica. Tournigan were seeking to cut back on the number of projects they had and sold off a uranium exploration project in the States, a gold project in Ireland and the Kremnica gold project. They have renamed themselves from…
Liked the interview a lot.
OTC was tipped in September 2010. I looked into it and it seemed a good opportunty. So I bought @ 0.75p in September 2010. Due to what in my opinion was sheer luck, the share price doubled a few weeks later and so I top sliced 50% in October @1.5p!
My remaining shares are in my bottom drawer where they will stay for a year or two.
