11 August 2021
Dear Shareholders
The Board is pleased to announce that Mr Andrew Bristow has joined the Board as
Chairman. Andrew is a corporate commercial lawyer with over 35 years of experience. He has been
involved in many IPOs and other capital raisings for companies in many sectors and recently been
the legal advisor for ASX listings of King West Mining and Native Mineral Resources. Andrew also
has experience as a director and has a thorough knowledge of corporate governance practice.
Kenneth Leo and myself have also been occupied with some personal family issues which have
impacted on our communication with shareholders in recent months and it has been a difficult time
for the Board, we apologise for this.
Mr Mark Newton will remain as a Director and CEO of the company. Geoff Muers, a founder of
Chala, stepped back to a non-executive Director role from 1 July as the delays in Peru have meant
the workload has been a lot less than anticipated. Geoff remains a committed shareholder of Chala
and actively involved in the day-to-day strategy of the company, and remains confident that value
will be realised for shareholders in due course and he looks forward to commencement of
exploration at Achatayhua in coming months.
Additionally, Paulo Diamantino Rangel, our country manager in Peru, has joined the Board. Paulo
had a long and successful career as a Naval Officer and Diplomat prior to joining AMP in 2018.
The progress in Peru has been delayed by an outbreak of the Delta variant of Covid 19 which has
forced the entire South if Peru into extended lockdown since May. At this stage the lockdown is not
scheduled to fully be lifted until the end of August.
Accordingly, we have not yet finalised our community access agreement for our Achatayhua project.
To finalize the agreement our legal representative, Ms Greta Castillo Mendoza, travelled to the
region of Quicacha to meet the community, together with Mr Elfer Bravo, the concession holder, this
last Friday, 6th of August. Discussions were constructive and we are hopeful the community
agreement will be finalized during August.
Following the community access agreement being completed, the company will move to obtain the
work permits for the proposed exploration of the Achatayhua project. Additionally, the Peruvian
Government services are running more slowly than previously because of Covid. Notwithstanding
this we now have all approvals neccesary for exploration, road construction and drilling, apart from
an Archeological sign off. This is expected to be a formality as a clean Archeological Bill of Health for
the area has previously been granted, but lapsed before we acquired the project.
Since April, the Chala Board has also been evaluating other opportunities to grow the business in
Australia and Peru, whilst holding onto the majority of the funds raised in March/April.
One of these opportunities is a mining Joint Venture (at small daily volume initially) of an
underground Copper and Gold mine near our flagship Achatayhua project. Prior to making any final
decision we are just working through some administrative issues with the possible Joint Venture
Partner. This would involve a capital investment in the order of US$100,000 from Chala initially, and
further details will be provided in due course.
The Board has also received approaches from various public companies/entities in Australia, Canada
and the UK to become involved in the Achatayhua project and help to fund it. The Board will
consider any such approaches and the new timing for the IPO when the community agreement is
finalized and the works permits issued for drilling. It became apparent during the fundraising process
earlier this year that additional funding is contingent on some further sampling and exploration work
at Achatayhua, which is planned to commence as soon as possible. The Board thanks you for your
support and patience at this time, and we look forward to providing additional updates soon.
Yours faithfully
Mark Newton
Executive Director and CEO
And
Andrew Bristow
Chairman