Andre Labuschagne – Norton Goldfields

ONE OFF THE WOOD: On his way to the airport Norton Goldfields managing director Andre Labuschagne called into the Roadhouse for a quick refreshment and a quiet chat.

It’s been a good year for Norton Goldfields. The company has been able to turn a lot of things around. What would be your top highlights for the year?

One of the highlights for the year would definitely be that we have managed to refinance the hedge and refinance the debt.

In the last month or so we have paid of another $20 million down on the debt.

I think that has been one of the factors that has managed to turn the company around where have gone from a massive debt to a much more manageable debt under current gold prices.

So the debt you have now is at a fairly comfortable level for the company to be sitting with?

We would always, as we have always said, work to try and get it down even further. But where it is now is a comfortable level, where the net debt position of the company at this point is probably around 15 to 20 million dollars.

What other highlights spring to mind?

The other highlight is the fact that we have produced another record year of gold production for the company.

In the four years that we have been the owners of the Paddington gold mine, every year we have increased production.

This year is the same and we have now produced just on 153,000 ounces of gold, which was another production record for us.

So from a balance sheet point of view the company is in a much better position and from a production point of view we have managed to continually grow the company and at the current gold prices we are in a very good position to take up other exploration opportunities that may be ahead for us.

Have you been with Norton Goldfields the entire time it has owned Paddington?

I have been with the company in a number of different roles. I was a project director for a while and then chief operating officer, so I have been with the company, basically for just over three and a half years but only in this role, as managing director, for the last 12 months.

How are you enjoying that role?

I love it. It’s great to see that we are moving things along and we are starting to achieve our targets and internal goals.

The company is probably in the best position that it has ever been.

We’re unhedged and sit as one of the top gold producers in Australia, with Australian assets.

It’s really a nice place to be.

How important has the gold price been to the turnaround of Norton’s fortunes?

The project was always aiming to have high gold prices so we can generate some cash and be well positioned to deal with certain issues.

The gold price over the last three of four months is definitely putting us in a very good position.

A $100 increase in the gold price delivers around $15 million to our bottom line.

So what do you do when you manage to take time off?

I’m a very keen fisherman. I really enjoy fishing.

What’s the best fish you’ve ever caught?

Probably a nice big tuna, I’ve caught a few of them, and some mackerel. But I still haven’t caught the Big One.

Do you think you ever will? And if you do will that mean you will stop?

Of course I will, but I won’t stop. It relaxes me and I enjoy it too much.

Is fishing like gold mining that if you do find the big one, be it a fish or a nugget, will that be enough to stop your search?

No. I think when that happens, with both, is when the bug really bites.

So, what does Norton Goldfields have in store over the next couple of months?

Our focus now is on increasing production and reducing costs. We have told the market that we will produce around 150,000 ounces of gold and we will do that at around $970 per ounce, which is quite a healthy margin.

That’s the nice thing about where we are at present. For the last 18 months all my time has gone into operations. Now we can spend more time looking at operational issues such as efficiencies and productivity and actually look at how we are going to deliver what we have said we are going to deliver.