Goldsearch Share Price Spike A Boon For Director

Sydney Morning Herald

Saturday January 6, 2007

Jamie Freed

GOLDSEARCH'S extraordinary share price rise during the past week has paid off for one of the Sydney explorer's directors.

It has emerged that executive director John Percival took advantage of a tripling in his company's share price to cash up his super fund by $440,000 on Tuesday.

Goldsearch shares had traded at about 5c for the past month before rumours of a good find at its Mary Kathleen uranium prospect in Queensland circulated last week, resulting in heightened interest from day traders and a share price spike.

In response to a price query on December 29, Goldsearch said it had completed an initial drilling program at Mary Kathleen two weeks earlier but it did not expect to receive results from an assay laboratory until mid to late January.

The announcement failed to dampen enthusiasm for the stock, and the shares hit 21c during high-volume trading on Tuesday.

The same day, Mr Percival's super fund sold 1.8 million shares at an average of 17.92c each and 945,000 listed options at an average of 12.24c each while he was on holiday in Germany.

Speaking from Paris on Friday, Mr Percival recalled that one of his brokers rang on Tuesday to inform him of the huge share price gain.

"I asked what would be a prudent situation, since the company had already advised the exchange we had no information [on December 29]," Mr Percival said.

Mr Percival knew this week he would be issued with 3 million unlisted options that had been approved at a shareholder meeting in late November. After his sale earlier this week, he still holds another 3.1 million shares and 1 million listed options.

On Wednesday morning, the Goldsearch board issued a statement cautioning investors it had no idea whether the Mary Kathleen deposit was economic. The release caused the shares to retreat to 15c, from a close of 18.5c on Tuesday.

Mr Percival said he had very little involvement with the drafting of the statement because he was on holiday.

Asked if his decision to sell could dampen optimism about the upcoming results from Mary Kathleen, Mr Percival reiterated he had no idea what the drilling would find.

"I was maybe a bit concerned that when I sold that I sold too early, if the uranium opportunity continues to build shareholder value," he said.

Goldsearch shares closed 1.5c lower at 13c on Friday.