Arimathaea hits new high on strength of new chairman

Hopes that Graham Lacey will be able to do for Arimathaea Resources (TSE) what he has done at Washington-based Nycal Corp. recently drove the price of Arimathaea shares to a new yearly high of $2.

The British financier, who restructured Nycal’s resource and financial holdings was recently named chairman of Arimathaea, just before the company changed its name from Murgold Resources and consolidated its shares on a 1-for-10 basis.

Having injected $195,000 of his own money into the company by way of a private placement of four million units at 48 cents each, Lacey with help from President Charles McAlpine, is negotiating to purchase a U.S. mineral property.

McAlpine, who agreed to step down as chairman of Arimathaea earlier this year, attributes the recent trading activity to Lacey’s involvement. The 45-year-old financier helped to clean up Nycal’s balance sheet after he was appointed chairman in 1989 and the Washington holding company has since purchased 35.1% of Gulf Resources & Chemical Corp. for US$33.5 million. Nycal’s shares have also risen from six cents since Lacey’s arrival to $6.

Murgold was previously associated with its 36% owned Chester Twp. gold project near Timmins, Ont., where estimated reserves of 507,365 tons of grade 0.23 oz. per ton, are uneconomic at current gold prices.

While Lacey couldn’t be reached for comment, McAlpine declined to give any details of the U.S. project negotiations which he said should be completed in about 2-3 weeks.

However, proceeds of a US$2.5-million private placement of 115,290 shares, plus $150,000 worth of debentures, and warrants will go toward any acquisitions, according to McAlpine.

As a result of the share consolidation, there are currently 2.2 million Arimathaea shares outstanding, of which 26% are held by Lacey and 21% by McAlpine.