Issue link: http://resourceworld.uberflip.com/i/963504
54 www.resourceworld.com A P R I L / M A Y 2 0 1 8 MINING G orden Glenn doesn't like financial risk. Maybe it's the investment banker in him or his years spent as a financial analyst, but de-risking mineral exploration and mining projects has been an obsession and his next endeavor is to build a gold and commodities trading company that eliminates investor risk while generating a billion-dollars in revenues. After restructuring Geodex Minerals in August 2017 and paying the outstand- ing debt by consolidating shares and converting warrants, Glenn made the transition from mineral explorer to a gold and commodities trader by form- ing Intercontinental Gold and Metals [ICAU-TSXV]. Intercontinental Gold and Metals was created to purchase gold from artisanal and small miners in Bolivia and to export the gold to refineries generating profits through a 1.5% to 2% royalty. To tap into the approximately US $1 billion Bolivian legal artisanal and small miner market, Glenn acquired gold trad- ing company Goldway in exchange for 5 million common shares and US $100,000. Goldway had established relationships with the Bolivian Gold Co-operatives. "We acquired Goldway through a stock offering because it ensures the company is fully vested in our business and their interests are aligned with our share- holders," said Gorden Glenn, Chairman, President and CEO of Intercontinental Gold and Metals. So far the deal has proven a success. Starting with US $1 million in capital, in the first quarter Intercontinental Gold and Metals has generated US $16 million in revenue through gold sales. According to Glenn, the company could be on target to generate $200 million in revenues by year end. "The key to success is working capi- tal turn-over. Our business does not take price risk and we lock in our margins on each trade," said Glenn The process is quite simple. Alluvial miners bring their gold to a secured loca- tion and the gold is melted into doré bars and sold within an hour to international refineries. The past quarter is what Glenn refers to as the "show me phase" and now the company is moving on to the "grow me phase," and the only limiting factor is the available capital which the company hopes to solve through a recent financing. A non-brokered placement is unique in that only 3,750 units with each unit priced at CDN $1,000 offered along with a coupon bearing a 10% payment semi-annually with warrants good for five years. The gross proceeds of the offering would add CDN $3,750,000 to the working capital of the company. "The additional working capital will help to boost the current trading efficiency which in turn should boost purchase vol- umes, revenues and cash flows," said Glenn. The second part of the company's business plan is to establish itself as a bul- lion dealer because some risk still exists between the doré stage and the refinery, where grades may fluctuate. "If we refined bullion, we could sell directly to the retail market to both increase revenues and eliminate risks by making us vertically integrated," said Glenn who sees the potential for the com- pany to become the Amazon of Gold. Further, Glenn is looking to disruptive technologies to take physical gold and turn it into a gold-backed crypto-currency with the difference being Intercontinental Gold and Metals has a chain of custody directly from the source. "I believe currencies of today will be replaced by crypto-currencies, digital cur- rency or collectively fintech. Fintech is a computer program or other technology used to support or enable banking and financial services. I also believe that the long-term store of value that gold repre- sents will persist. It only makes sense to combine our artisanal-sourced gold with the requisite technology to enable consum- ers/investors to purchase, store and pay with their allocated gold," Glenn said. While on the surface this appears to be the same model as most bullion deal- ers, what makes Intercontinental Gold and Metals unique is they are buying their gold directly from artisanal miners, and buying direct could result in higher mar- gins than typical bullion dealers. Post re-structuring, the company has 14,703,420 shares issued and outstanding and 20,294,900 on a fully diluted basis. "My goal is quite simple – to put peo- ple's money to work, minimize risk and create a billion-dollar enterprise," says Glenn. n In an effort to eliminate investor risk, company transitions into gold and commodities trader by Robert Simpson