Colin Oxlade’s company liquidated over capital raising tied to PGL Gold’s $2.4bn PNG gold project

Formerly banned company director Colin Oxlade has had one of his companies liquidated by an investor who sought to buy shares in a $2.4bn gold project in Papua New Guinea.

Colin Oxlade has had one of his companies liquidated by an investor who sought to buy shares in a $2.4bn gold project in Papua New Guinea. Picture: Supplied

Previously banned company director Colin Oxlade has had one of his companies liquidated over a $100,000 debt relating to shares in PGL Gold, which has in the past raised money for its multi-billion dollar gold project in Papua New Guinea.

The liquidation went through earlier this month despite a lawyer for the plaintiff saying Mr Oxlade filed an affidavit with the court to the effect that he had $12.5m in precious metals in the process of being assayed, and for which he expected imminent payment.

Mr Oxlade’s company Ox Consolidated Holdings was placed in liquidation after it failed to pay back a debt to Queensland woman Sarah McEwan.

Dr McEwan’s lawyer, Derek Cronin from Queensland law firm Cronin Miller, told the Australian that Dr McEwan had taken the matter to court after failing to be repaid.

“(The funds) were ultimately invested into an entity that we understand to be PGL Gold,’’ Mr Cronin said.

“We procured an agreement by Ox Consolidated Holdings to pay a sum of $100,000 by a certain date and that date passed, so we then entered judgment on that and then applied to wind up the company,’’ Mr Cronin said

PGL, through director David Catsoulis, has denied any involvement in the matter or any current relationship with Mr Oxlade.

David Catsoulis says Mr Oxlade’s dealings are not related to PGL Gold.

Mr Cronin said it was his understanding that the $100,000 was principal plus interest from the investment in PGL shares.

“They (Mr Oxlade) sought to adjourn the winding up application on the basis of some promises of payment,’’ Mr Cronin said.

“Oxlade delivered an affidavit to us which said he had all of this money coming in, it was about $12.5m which he said was coming in imminently. And of course it never did.’’

Mr Cronin said the sworn affidavit said that Mr Oxlade had a “train shipment of precious metals to be delivered to Melbourne Refinery Group in Melbourne’’.

“Upon delivery of the precious metals, they will be subject to an atomic spectrometer analysis which determines the quality and quantity of the precious metals that are for sale.’’

Mr Cronin said the affidavit says Mr Oxlade expected to be paid following the assaying of the metals, and with that amount to be about $12.5m.

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SMB Advisory partner Alice Ruhe has been appointed liquidator of the company, and said investigations into the company’s affairs were in their initial stages.

“We are yet to receive a Report on Company Activities and Property from the company’s director, nor have we received the books and records of the company, and our initial notifications have only just been issued, as such we cannot yet provide an estimated outstanding creditor amount at this time,’’ Ms Ruhe said.

The Australian reported in mid-2021 that Mr Oxlade was raising money from investors to buy PGL Gold shares through an outfit called Spice Capital Partners.

PGL at the time was seeking to raise $2.2m to go towards “proven gold resources in the Maprik District in Papua New Guinea, which combined have an estimated net present value of $2.4bn’’.

PGL Gold - samples from its Papua New Guinea project.

PGL was founded by twice-bankrupt Brisbane entrepreneur David Catsoulis, and says it is sitting on a massive alluvial gold resource, worth billions of dollars, in the Maprik region of PNG.

The company released an offer document September 2019, seeking to raise $2.2m through the issue of 1.1 million $2 shares.

“There have been seven viable sites that have been estimated to host 5000kg each (881,500 ounces) each of high grade alluvial gold,’’ the IM says.

Mr Catsoulis told The Australian on Wednesday that none of his companies, PGL Gold, Impact Gold or Warwick Gold had anything to do with Mr Oxlade and said that if Mr Oxlade was raising money against his own shares in PGL that was his business.

Mr Catsoulis said PGL was currently pulling 25kg of gold out of the ground every few days in PNG and once export licenses were organised, the gold would then be sold and investors could expect a more than 100 per cent return on their investments.

“At the moment we’ve got five dredges deployed in five separate parts of the Screw River, we’ve had a whole range of different influences on that operation from flooding to people who’ve run off with some gold to a range of different mechanical breakdowns but we’re producing around 25kg (of gold) every two or three days,’’ he said.

Mr Catsoulis said the past year’s accounts had just been produced and he was currently finalising them.

“That gold has just started to come in the past two to three months and it’s been ad hoc … I can’t give you an accurate result but certainly we’re in the millions of dollars per month category.

A screenshot from A PGL Gold's investor update.

“We’re in the process of clearing our export licence over the next couple of weeks. As soon as that export licence has been granted we’ll move that gold back into Australia, pay a dividend and get on with business.’’

Mr Catsoulis said investors would receive a “substantial” dividend this financial year, adding that PGL had not raised money for at least 18 months.

Mr Catsoulis said Mr Oxlade was not related to his companies at all, and denied that OX Consolidated being a shareholder in Warwick Gold meant that they were related.

“That’s a long bow to draw, honestly if you keep going down that path we’ll take legal action,’’ he said.

“We’re not related, we’ve terminated anything to do with Colin Oxlade.

“He’s raising money for shares that he owns in our company from what you just said to me. It’s not in our name. It’s nothing to do with us.’’

Mr Catsoulis’s related company Impact Gold – which owns PGL Gold – has said in the past it was planning a $20.7bn listing on the London Stock Exchange in 2023, with investor funds to be raised to exploit a $100bn gold and precious metals resource.

This resource had been identified by “Resonance Frequency Geo Technology”, which Mr Catsoulis said previously the company has proprietary access to in Australia and PNG.

“We’re blessed with, I’ll call it, some of the best resources in the world today,’’ he said last year.

“If I had to summarise it in a nutshell, if you took Rio Tinto’s in-ground resources today, we’re probably sitting equivalently at the same in-ground value as what they do, which is around $100bn.’’

Mr Catsoulis said this week he stood by Impact’s claim to have those resources.

Impact Gold itself is involved in a Federal Court matter, to answer a debt brought by a Melbourne company, Undathesun Nominees.

Mr Catsoulis said that matter was related to a $190,000 debt related to a convertible note and “will be dispelled with today’’.

Mr Oxlade was disqualified from managing companies for four years in 2017, with the Australian Securities & Investments Commission saying at the time that he “has a history as the director of multiple failed companies and unpaid creditors over a period of at least 12 years’’.

The ASIC action in 2017 followed the appointment of liquidators to two companies managed by Mr Oxlade – Vanilla Management and Investment group and Africa Uranium.

“In the case of three companies – Ox Marketing, Vanilla Group and Africa Uranium – the amount owed to creditors was substantial,’’ ASIC said.

“And, Mr Oxlade’s own management of the companies contributed to their failure.’’

A Federal Court judgment shows Oxlade, who ASIC documents indicate was at the time living in Waterfall Gully in the Adelaide Hills, was also a broker for Astra Resources, which ASIC moved against in 2016, disqualifying three former directors from managing corporations.

In that matter, founders Jaydeep Biswas and Silvana De Cianni were disqualified for 12 years and lawyer Barrie Meerkin for nine years.

The Federal Court judgment from July 2015 found that “Astra Resources raised more than $6.5m illegally from 281 investors during 2011 and 2012’’, with the British company raising money from investors without a prospectus or a similar disclosure document, as required under Australian law.

Mr Oxlade did not respond to attempts to contact him.

Originally published as Colin Oxlade’s company liquidated over capital raising tied to PGL Gold’s $2.4bn PNG gold project