Growth forecast for First Dynasty

The success of the Voisey Bay project in Labrador is helping to put the spotlight on another public company in which Robert Friedland, his brother Eric and other family members are significant shareholders.

At a presentation in Vancouver, Eric Friedland predicted that First Dynasty Mines (TSE) will become the fastest-growing of all his family’s investments. The Friedlands hold about 38% of First Dynasty’s 42.8 million outstanding shares, and are convinced that the building blocks are in place for the company’s continued growth.

First Dynasty is headed by President Timothy Haddon, who formerly headed up Amax Gold. He met Robert Friedland in 1991, during Amax’s takeover of Fairbanks Gold, and subsequently left Amax when, in 1993, Cyprus Minerals merged with Amax Inc. (Amax Gold’s major shareholder). It was then that Haddon approached Friedland with the proposition of setting up a new company.

Haddon provided strong managerial skills, whereas Friedland contributed an ability to raise capital, combined with some promising assets.

Those assets include the Dublin Gulch and Clear Creek properties in the Yukon, as well as the Triunfo 3 and 4 concessions in Venezuela.

A large porphyry gold deposit, Dublin Gulch has been described as virtually a facsimile of Fairbanks Gold’s Fort Knox deposit in Alaska (which Amax is now putting into production). The Yukon prospect contains a resource estimated at 110 million tons grading 0.034 oz. gold per ton. The mineralization is associated with sheeted quartz veins within a granodioritic intrusive.

This year’s program will include prefeasibility work to test the economics of developing an open-pit, heap-leach operation.

The Clear Creek property contains at least seven igneous stocks which are believed to have good potential for hosting porphyry gold deposits. To identify targets for trenching and drilling, First Dynasty will carry out geological mapping, geochemical sampling and geophysical surveys.

Meanwhile, at the Triunfo concessions in Venezuela, old placer workings, together with bedrock gold-silver mineralization, have been observed in several locations. The work program there will consist of aeromagnetics, trenching, geochemical sampling, geological mapping and bulk sampling.

Aside from its efforts in the Yukon and Venezuela, First Dynasty will be focusing on what Haddon describes as the fastest-growing region on the globe Southeast Asia. He said the company is intent on acquiring gold and copper projects in the area, although its initial move was to acquire the company that operates the Sembakung oil field in Indonesia.