Chesterfield Resources plc is considering investing in a “new area of activity” as its optioned partner begins 2,000 metre drilling at the Adeline copper project in Labrador, eastern Canada.
EXPLORATION
The company, with projects in Cyprus and Canada, last year underwent a change of management, appointed a new executive chairman and began cutting costs.
Its Canadian partner Sterling Metals, which previously earmarked C$2 million for its drill campaign, began operations on 5 June at Sail Pond in the Great Northern Peninsula of Newfoundland.
During 2023, Sterling expects to spend C$1.75m (£1.02m) at Sail Pond, and C$2.5m (£1.47m) on an airborne survey and a 2,500m drill campaign at Adeline.
CYPRUS
Chesterfield also reported progress on its holdings in Cyprus which it last year reduced from 26 licences to three covering 13.39 km2.
The company today said it had “formulated plans for further exploration work” and remained in preliminary discussions with potential joint venture partners to conduct the work.
TRANSFORMATIONAL
Chesterfield added it had made “significant cut backs in all aspects of running costs” including £2,500 monthly reductions to board members for the past several months.
This compares with payments to the previously larger board that totalled £285,906 during 2022.
The company is in a “stable financial condition” with no debts and very low cash and is also aiming for a “transformational investment into a new area of activity”.
“Extensive work is underway to consider a number of possible options on offer.
“The most important criterion behind this work will be to generate significant shareholder value in the near term, and the goal is to be able to announce the direction of this next phase in Chesterfield’s development by the end of 2023.”
Chesterfield added that additional capital raising or additional shares being issued were a possibility.
“Since the new management took over in Autumn 2022 we have not wavered in our emphasis on radically reducing current outlays and avoiding future spending commitments that we were not confident we could underwrite without raising new equity,” said executive chairman Paul Ensor.
“Our focus now is primarily on finding opportunities that will be the right fit with our resources and capital structure that will generate shareholder value once agreed and transacted.”