Twice-bankrupt mining executive David Catsoulis says he is sitting on a $100bn gold and precious metals resource to rival Rio Tinto’s holdings – now all he needs are investors and a modest amount of capital to get the project off the ground.
And if cash is short, an investment company working with Catsoulis’s Impact Gold venture will take payment in bitcoin, at more than double the current rate for the cryptocurrency.
Investors taking an early holding in the firm, which will exploit “one of the greatest potential gold discoveries on Earth’’ in the wilds of Papua New Guinea, have the chance to get in early ahead of what Impact Gold says is a planned $20.7bn listing on the London Stock Exchange in 2023.
Read Next Last year, The Australian profiled PGL Gold – whose assets are now owned by Impact Gold – which had as far back as September 2019 sought to raise $2.2m from investors at $2 per share.
At the time, investors were promised a share of the company’s gold project, with “proven gold resources in the Maprik District in Papua New Guinea, which combined have an estimated net present value of $2.4bn’’.
Mr Catsoulis, whose listed address is a waterfront estate at Paradise Point on the Gold Coast, told The Australian at the time that the numbers in the 2019 information memorandum were “conservative’’ and the actual gold resources could be three times the 2019 estimate.
READ MORE: David Catsoulis hoping to hit gold | Impact Gold’s annual report, prepared for a meeting held at the Star Casino on the Gold Coast in late May this year, indicates this supposed potential, with the company spruiking “phone book numbers of gold/valuations in our portfolio’’.
According to the company’s documents – and despite indicating last year that it expected to start production in late July and begin paying dividends in September – no gold has yet been produced, “despite Thomo’s best efforts and skill on the heavy machines which have been plagued with breakdowns and parts supply issues, and then the Covid pandemic hit’’.
Mr Catsoulis, who has been elevated to managing director of the company after emerging from bankruptcy last year, says in the annual report that he is “only too aware of your concerns and patience over the reporting period as to the affairs of Impact Gold’’, and its attempts to kickstart its mining projects in PNG.
Mr Catsoulis says the company’s representatives were “blocked from entering the country’’ until recently, but the company was now raising another $6m to start mining operations.
“I hope all sophisticated shareholders will consider a further investment in our ongoing PNG enterprise,’’ he writes.“I am assuring all concerned parties that a placement from your side now will kickstart the company’s ability to set up its new production plan and secure future key strategic relationships with government and institutions and commence the targeted initial … gold production and extraction plan for our company.”
At current gold prices, a one tonne per month gold mining operation would generate $91.6m each month.While this figure may seem high, Mr Catsoulis in September last year told investment firm KapVista that Impact Gold had an in-ground resource comparable to Rio Tinto’s.
“We’re blessed with, I’ll call it, some of the best resources in the world today,’’ he said.“If I had to summarise it in a nutshell, if you took Rio Tinto’s in-ground resources today, we’re probably sitting equivalently at the same in-ground value as what they do, which is around $100bn.
“I don’t say that number lightly.It’s because we have access to such incredible technology that’s highlighted different resources that we’ve been able to accelerate the exploration programs, to evidence what’s now at hand, which is these five world-class resources which we have control of.
“Any one of these would be enough for any individual resource house to base their … future foundations on,” he added.
The technology Mr Catsoulis refers to is the so-called “Resonance Frequency Geo Technology”, which he says the company has proprietary access to in Australia and PNG.
“The technology is so good that it accurately predicts the grade, the tonnes and … the depth at which we need to operate to secure the best resource optimisation,’’ Mr Catsoulis says in a video of the presentation.
There is little detail about this technology online, beyond a patent filed by Ukrainian geologist Gennadii Nedria and a presentation about his company, Global Geological Group.
While Impact Gold’s initial 38 tonne gold target in PNG, and the follow-up 35.2 million ounce alluvial target (worth $91.4bn at today’s gold price) boast large numbers, the company is looking to vend in Queensland-focused Warwick Gold before the planned IPO.
Warwick, the annual report says, is sitting on “estimated $9.3 trillion in-ground value in one property’’, with gold and rhodium being targeted.That company is expected to bring in $50m-$150m per month once it is in production.
Mr Catsoulis said the plan was to roll together Impact, Warwick, and a third company, Tomcat Resources, which has its eye on projects in the Northern Territory.
“It is proposed that a full explanatory memorandum for a proposed roll-up between these entities be released to shareholders in the coming few months with an extraordinary general meeting to be announced to address the full scenario of rolling all three entities into a newco shell to be listed on the UK London Stock Exchange,’’ Mr Catsoulis says.
In a document titled Bitcoin Impact Gold Ltd Investment Offer, obtained by The Australian, investors are offered the chance to swap their bitcoin for shares in the company, “at the highest price ever achieved” for the cryptocurrency.“Spice Capital Partners … an Australian-based boutique advisory group has established a secondary trading platform to allow the effective trading of Crypto Currencies and Unlisted (off-market) Public Company Shares,’’ the document states.
“Our first offer is an exchange for Impact Gold Ltd shares for Bitcoin.’’
The offer document says investors will be given 6899 Impact Gold shares, valued at $US10 each, in exchange for each bitcoin, valuing the trade at some $96,000.Bitcoin is currently trading at around $40,000.
“Why hold on to all your incredibly volatile Bitcoin when you can de-risk by selling a portion at the highest bitcoin price ever achieved,’’ the document states.
“You then swap these into a booming new-age mining company at a share price heavily discounted to the planned IPO/Listing Price on the London Stock Exchange in 12 months, with full dividend & voting rights!’’ The document forecasts an expected IPO at $US75 ($105) per share.
Mr Catsoulis’s previous business endeavours include Healing Power, which was at one time also planning to float on the ASX.
That company was placed in liquidation in 2006 after a plan to buy and consolidate complementary medicine companies failed.
After being discharged from bankruptcy in August 2014, Mr Catsoulis registered a company called Miracle Technologies.
That company claimed to hold “exclusive, world-class” intellectual property based on technology powered with “antimatter” that was “decades ahead of anything available in Europe or the US”.
Mr Catsoulis did not respond to requests for comment.
Cameron England Business editor Follow Cameron Adelaide Cameron England has been reporting on business for more than 18 years with a focus on corporate wrongdoing, the wine sector, oil and gas, mining and technology.He is a graduate of the Australian Institute of C…
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