European Goldfields

Today’s reshuffle at European Goldfields puts gold mining financier Martyn Konig at the helm to handle £310 million of project funding.

Konig, formerly of NM Rothschild, Goldman Sachs and New Gold Inc and already a European Goldfields director, has become executive chairman of the Yukon, Canada-based company, which needs to finance its newly approved Skouries and Olympias gold, copper, lead and zinc projects in Greece and its Certej gold and silver project in Romania. At the same time, out go abrasive chief executive officer David Reading and previous chairman Dimitrios Koutras, who masterminded the victorious campaign to win project approval from the Athens authorities and who remains
a substantial shareholder.

Company watchers suggest Konig might be better suited to the diplomatic handling of key Greeks than Reading, whose skills are not primarily in the financing field. With an estimated eight million oz of gold, 789,000 tonnes of copper and 1.6 million tonnes of lead and zinc to be exploited in Greece alone, European hopes to be in production in three years.

Highlighted here in January at 153.5p and three days ago at 296p, European shares have now hit 397p. Short-term investors might find partial profit taking prudent, but there could be plenty more to go for in the medium to longer term.