David Catsoulis’s Warwick Gold Holdings slips into administration for the second time

Warwick Gold Holdings, which says its gold and precious metals projects in Australia and Papua New Guinea are potentially worth several hundred billion dollars, is in administration again.

Warwick Gold Holdings founder and director David Catsoulis.

Warwick Gold Holdings, which says its mining projects in Australia and Papua New Guinea could be worth hundreds of billions of dollars, has been placed in administration for a second time.

But founder and director David Catsoulis – who has been bankrupt twice in the past – says the relevant debt has already been paid and the company is in talks with a significant investor.

He also forwarded an email from a law firm indicating that the receiver and manager would be removed from the company. Receiver Rodgers Reidy has been contacted for comment. The company was also briefly placed in receivership in June.

Mr Catsoulis said the company was considering a $250 per share buyout offer, which given the company has 8.9 million shares on offer would value it at $2.24bn.

Warwick’s main assets are the Twin Hills and Silver Spur projects in Queensland, which it agreed to acquire from Thomson Resources for $3.5m last year.

While Thomson was keen to offload the projects because of their high holding costs and because they did not satisfy its “techno-economic evaluation” process, Warwick claims to have identified the potential for a “conservative’’ estimate of a multibillion-dollar resource.

Mr Catsoulis said a recent independent geologist’s report confirmed its thesis that there were platinum group elements at the Texas (Twin Hills) projects worth looking into.

“In relation to the administrator for Warwick Gold Holdings we have paid out the debt this week and are waiting on their removal from the record,’’ Mr Catsoulis said in a statement.

“Our latest independent geo report on the Texas projects confirms our position that there are PGE (platinum group element) anomalism worth following up and we have a major investment group ready to join in on this search and exploration process for these precious metals.’’

Mr Catsoulis earlier this year posted a series of videos to YouTube, claiming that the assets at the Texas project had a replacement value of $100m.

“The infrastructure here is enormous, on the Texas mine site, we refer to as Twin Hills,’’ he says. “Could not replace this for $100m.’’

Sources say the project has problems with water management and contamination.

Since at least 2019 Mr Catsoulis has also been promoting a major gold project in the remote Maprik region of PNG, which was to underpin a planned $20.7bn listing of his company Impact Gold on the London Stock Exchange this year, and he also has claimed that company’s in-ground resources were valued at around $100bn.

The latest financial documents lodged by Impact Gold, as at December 2022, showed it had $121,929 in cash and $193,174 in receivables, and current liabilities – those which fall due within 12 months – of $4.36m.

Mr Catsoulis’s fundraising activities are understood to be receiving scrutiny from the Australian Securities & Investments Commission.

ASIC has refused to confirm whether it was looking into Mr Catsoulis’s fundraising efforts. However, The Australian has spoken to sources who have been contacted by ASIC, and has a copy of a document which has been sent to several authorities complaining of the business conduct of Mr Catsoulis and his associates.