# NQ Minerals Q&A: A very senior resource company (AQSE:NQMI)

- Link: https://www.directorstalkinterviews.com/qa-nq-minerals-becoming-a-very-senior-resource-company-aqsenqmi/412844886
- Published: 2020-07-21T14:01:31+01:00
- Author: Amilia Stone

**NQ Minerals plc (AQSE:NQMI**) Chairman David Lenigas caught up with DirectorsTalk
for an exclusive interview to discuss the debt restructuring, listing on a tier 
one exchange and increased production at their Hellyer gold mine.

**Q1: First off, congratulations on your debt restructuring news. David, can you
run us through the details and what it means for the company?**

**A1**: I joined the company back in November and had three main aims with NQ Minerals.

One was to help restructure the corporate debt within the group which seems to be
one of the key sticking points for investors looking at the company for investment,
all I hear is the company’s got too much debt etc.

The second point was to lift the elevation of people’s knowledge around the world
of what the company does.

The third was to, once the debt was restructured, seek a dual listing for the company
on a tier one stock exchange, whether it’s in London, Australia, or Canada because
NEX, which is now AQSE, is a great exchange but liquidity is quite limited at the
moment. Hopefully, the new owners can sort that and lift its profile.

NQMI is becoming a very senior resource company now, our key operations at Hellyer
are performing very well, we’ve got the Beaconsfield gold mine coming back into 
production, the famous gold mine in Tasmania, one of the richest gold mines in that
part of the world. It’s time to move the company onto an exchange where we can get
a lot more liquidity.

**Q2: So, a tier one exchange, what can you tell us about that?**

**A2**: From my corporate experience for the last 20 years looking at the London
exchange in particular where our primary listing is at the moment, a lot of institutions
can’t trade NEX which is now AQSE, a lot of fund managers globally can’t trade AIM
but everybody in the world can trade the London Stock Exchange. Whether you’re a
punter, whether you come from China, Beijing, New York, Australia, the London Stock
Exchange is key.

So, obviously the London Stock Exchange is a key target market for us to look as
a possible upgrade, we’re also in discussions with a number of advisers to look 
at Toronto Stock Exchange as a potential main board listing and as you know, Australia
is always on the cards for us.

It’s a process but we needed to get the debt restructuring underway and that’s been
a very successful thing with ING, a long time working and we’re now moving through
that phase and restructuring the company’s balance sheet so we can clean it up and
move to a far more liquid exchange.

**Q3: Last week you announced increased production results at the company’s Hellyer
gold mine, can you talk us through those highlights?**

**A3**: With NQ Minerals, life changes very quickly as there’s so many good things
happening.

The Hellyer operation, which is our flagship operation, is a massive project in 
Tasmania, started in 2018, in 2019, it was more about continuing of commissioning,
we’ve processed around about 900,000 tonnes in 2019.

In the month of June, we cranked the plant up to effectively now 1.3 million tonnes
a year which has a direct affect of adding 40% of production and revenues on the
top line and most of that goes to the bottom line. That was one of the key events
that the banks have been looking because at one point 2 million tonnes a year plus
Hellyer is in a very good position to services all of its  with debts and help with
corporate debts and it’s been a very successful upgrade.

We’ve still got a bit more juice in the tank that if commodity prices fall a bit
or there’s some uncertainties in the lead/zinc/gold/silver markets then we can up
production further if required.

So, it’s been a very successful upgrade, can’t say on a public forum what our revenue
jumps will be but they will be very significant, we’ll just have to wait for public
news releases on updates on revenues.

We’ve got a 44% increase in production of our lead and zinc concentrates and with
that we get a lot of gold and silver credits as well so it’s been a very successful
move for us.

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