Older hands will savour the appointment of colourful Aussie mining veteran Michael Silver to chair Mercator Gold, the entrepreneurial AIM outfit developing gold prospects in his familiar terrain of Western Australia. He replaces Terence Strapp, who is leaving for health reasons, and will complement the efforts of Patrick Harford, Mercator’s managing director and himself another seasoned Australian mining entrepreneur of the old school.

Silver, now 71, was among the more aggressive players in the 1980s mining boom Down Under, when figures such as Alan Bond and Peter Briggs bestrode the scene and brokers with an antipodean flavour such as TC Coombs cut a dash in London. A professional engineer, he headed a number of Australian ventures, including Dome Mining, Southern Goldfields and Quest Mining, and was responsible for developing the Nevoria gold mine in Western Australia and Tolukuma in Papua New Guinea.

London-based Mercator, which raised £4 million at 40p the other day to speed developments at the Bluebird open pit in Western Australia’s Meekatharra mining district and has 30 per cent of recently successful copper and zinc explorer Swan Gold, will no doubt welcome Silver’s ministrations. The shares, which touched 106p three years ago, now trade at a mere 23.5p.

Mercator Gold	AIM	£2.36m	3.25p	0.00p
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