update22 Dec 2009 12:49
The big thing for us at the moment”, says Roger Goodwin, “is that we’re trying to get a permit to mine below the 1300 level at Caijiaying”. Griffin Mining’s Caijiaying zinc-gold mine in the province of Hebei has proved, over time, to have been one of the more successful of the Chinese ventures listed on the Aim market. It’s been a long road, but over ten years you would have made nearly four times your money had you put it in Griffin and left it there, as the shares went down, then right up, and then down again, all on the back of progress at Ciajiaying. All right, the company has been involved in other adventures along the way, but none of that other activity ever seems to last long, or has a lasting effect. True, that may very well change before too long, as Roger Goodwin, the company’s finance director and London point-man, says that the Griffin is still very much in the market for deals and acquisitions, despite coming off second best a couple of times in the not too distant past.
But it’s development work at Caijiaying that remains the priority, and it ought not to be long now before permission is granted, and the company moves on to start mining deeper, and richer, ore. The application process is supposed to take a mere 28 days, says Roger, but the Chinese authorities had lots of queries, and Griffin duly took the time to answer them all one by one. The issues raised by the Chinese have now, says Roger, all been resolved. According to the announcement