New chair for Golden West

  Golden West Resources has replaced its retiring founding Chairman Dr John Daniels with experienced iron ore executive Geoff Wedlock, who will commence in the role of chairman on November 30.Wedlock has been in the iron ore business for more than 35 years and the company said in a statement about his appointment that his experience will greatly assist in the development of the Wiluna West Iron Ore Project and that it is consistent with the strategy to build Golden West’s management capability to reflect the growing potential of the Project.Prior to joining Golden West, Wedlock held a number of senior executive roles in the iron ore industry. He is a former managing director of leading iron ore miner Portman Mining, advanced magnetite developer Grange Resources, and Executive Vice President and CEO of BHP Iron Ore Pty Ltd.Commenting on his appointment, Wedlock said “I am delighted to join Golden West at this pivotal time in the company’s development. The company has a very exciting future, based on the potential of the excellent, high quality haematite resource at Wiluna West. “I am very excited about the prospect of building the team and capability to take this project forward.”In conjunction with Wedlock’s appointment, Golden West has appointed Capital Investment Partners (CIP) to the role of Lead Manager to place up to 14,477,689 of the company’s shares with institutional and sophisticated professional investors.This placement represents approximately 19.7% of the company’s existing issued share capital or 16.5% of the issue capital following the placement. The placement is subject to shareholder approval and will require the successful approval of Resolution 3 at the forthcoming Annual General Meeting of members on November 29, 2007.CIP has supported the development of a number of early stage companies and projects in the resources industry, most recently raising $50 million of development capital for Sundance Resources.Golden West has also announced a non-renounceable rights issue that will entitle existing shareholders to subscribe for shares on the same terms as the placement, on the basis of one new share for every 15 shares already held. It is anticipated that the rights issue will raise approximately $10.5 million based on the same price as the placement issue.The company said these two funding initiatives will raise in total approximately $36 million, and are expected to provide sufficient funding to progress further exploration drilling at Wiluna West necessary to fully define the potential mineral resource, as well as progress development studies for the Wiluna West Iron Ore Project.