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NQ Minerals chairman upbeat on Australian assets

Published: 22:25 24 Jul 2015 AEST

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NQ Minerals is upbeat on the potential of its Australian assets....

Chairman Brian Stockbridge of NQ Minerals (ISDX:NQMI), which listed today, is upbeat about the quality of the Australia- focused group's assets and says he hopes to start generating  cash flow in just over a year.

"I can't think of any exploration companies that have gone from exploration to generating cash in a year or so," he said.

Shares started at 8p on the ISDX growth market today and rose to 9p in relatively short order.

The firm is focused on two exploration projects - the Ukalunda and Square Post in North Queensland, Australia - tenements which used to be owned by Sons of Gwalia, explains Stockbridge, which was Australia's biggest gold producer.

They form part of the Charters Towers gold province, where over 20 million ounces of gold have already been produced.

At the Ukalanda alone, any one of the three main target areas could be a "company maker", said Stockbidge.

Among them is the historic Sunbeam Silver mine, where there is a stockpile of silver on the ground, which the firm plans to process to start generating that earlier mentioned cash, he explained.

The firm's strategy is to use modern exploration techniques, and among other things, drill deeper holes, to bring resource estimates up to JORC code standards, to create value for shareholders in the relatively short term.

Australia is a politically stable and established, yet Queensland is still largely undeveloped in mining terms, he told Proactive.

In addition, at a time when many junior miners struggling, Stockbridge reckons this is "perfect" timing to start something new in the resource sector.

“I think there’s a double effect,” he said.

"If you can get involved in a good company at an undervalue that then produces something , then you get the increase in the market as the resources sector starts to come back again.”

Earlier, the group pointed out that its management had a proven track record of locating properties with valuable resources and also in developing projects to bankable stage.

Chief executive Walter Doyle, a venture capitalist, with over 30 years of mining and resource properties in Australia, was recently behind the resurrection of  potash developer Sirius Minerals (LON:SXX) which emerged from a shell company into a potash business where the share price rocketed to 32p from 2p.

The firm's upcoming exploration and  drill  programme has been funded through the raising of £1mln via a subscription at 8p a share through INcrowd, a crowd funding platform, which has seen a range of investors come forward, says Stockbridge, including long term ones.

The third member of the board is non-exec director Bryan Smart – a chartered accountant with over 40 years of experience in finance.

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