Mariana Resources Ltd (LON:MARL) Chief Executive Officer Glen Parsons caught up with DirectorsTalk for an exclusive interview to discuss Argentina’s return to the international capital markets, what this means for Mariana’s assets Las Calandrias and Los Cisnes, a pro-business government and better things to come for Argentina
Q1: Glen, there was news out yesterday that Argentina is poised to return to international capital markets after a 15 year ban. First though, could you tell us about your Argentinian assets, Las Calandrias and Los Cisnes?
A1: Over the last 2 years Argentina has been in a downturn and with this whole new election, new government, everything is being poised for some sort of resurgent. We have our Las Calandrias asset, which is more of a district play, and then Los Cisnes, which is further south and what we’ve been doing over the last 2 years is really trying to elevate the assets on a low cost basis but really with a focus of high grade gold and silver. Now in terms of Mariana Resources’ portfolio they’ve been probably, one might think, a little neglected however we’ve strategically placed them on a lower cost or lower profile budget, if you want to call it, and in fact if one looks at our portfolio these assets are actually probably a lot more advanced than the rest of our portfolio. We actually have a resource at Las Calandrias of some 520,000 ounces, within that there’s a smaller high grade zone and then down at Los Cisnes we do have some very high grade silver discovery veins there. So they are well placed and we think hopefully with the positive sentiments in Argentina now, globally, we think that that will help us move these forward strategically.
Q2: So with Argentina being poised to return to international capital markets, what could this mean for Mariana Resources and your Argentinian assets?
A2: Well I think for the country returning to the capital markets what that does is it really opens up investor appetite because they’re going to be going to the off-shore market trying to seek capital inside the country. Therefore those assets, those as in investment assets like Mariana and others where external shareholders or investors see value, they will now probably have the appetite to come back knowing that the framework or the confidence is coming back into Argentina.
Q3: OK, now since Mauricio Macri came into power in December and his government being pro-business, do you feel that this will have a positive effect on the investment in the country?
A3: Certainly, it certainly shall. We know that they’re busy talking or they’ve struck a deal with those bond investors in New York. In terms of the pro-business laws specifically mining, some of those mining laws expatriation of currency outside, foreign companies wanting dividend money out, they can so they really are trying lay the platform I think for what we would probably say is pro-business. There’s definitely pro-business as well as investors, it’s the foreign investors, Argentina is desperate for foreign help, they need capital coming in and that’s going to come from foreign indirect investment and the pro-business approach, that it’s certainly laying the framework for is certainly going to help that.
Q4: The Argentinian stock market is up just over 33% year-to-date and it’s also the best performing year-to-date in the world, do you think there are better things to come from Argentina?
A4: Yes, I think that probably leads into the whole sentiment from the previous question that you put forward, there’s no doubt Argentina has been devalued because of the past regime because of some of those laws in terms of foreign investors and trying to keep their reserves up which doesn’t bode well for a free market economy to actually let them flow. So from an Argentina prospective, certainly the uptick in the fair market there certainly helps and is really positive and it just leads from your last question, effectively foreign direct investment is probably poised too, they’re confident to come back in. I think that’s the key, confidence in Argentina
