The Gold Report: Pershing Gold Corp. (PGLC:NASDAQ) just uplisted to NASDAQ. What are the immediate and long-term benefits of that listing?
Steve Alfers: The short-term benefit is increased liquidity. The new listing, combined with recapitalization from the stock split we recently completed, will allow institutions to easily get into the stock. I’m hoping we will get new sponsorship and support.
TGR: Have you had institutional support in the past?
SA: We had some institutional support. Most of those interested in the mining space tend to be specialists and many of those were constrained from investing in the bulletin board or because of minimum price constraints.
TGR: How did the stock split help?
SA: Now we have a stock that is priced within the range that a share must trade in order to be eligible for a listing on the NASDAQ. It also structures shareholdings so we can still have considerable volume every day and maintain an appealing price.
TGR: The share price increased when the stock split. Do you expect the same kind of bump from the listing on the NASDAQ?
SA: We have only been post-split for a week or so, and the share price has held up very well. As we begin to trade on the NASDAQ, we’ll watch that closely to see how it behaves. Ultimately, the stock price will respond to news flow as we show progress toward building the next domestic gold producer. We have been on that path since we started, but we’ll do it on a bigger stage now.
TGR: What is the financial profile of Pershing Gold? Do you have debt?
SA: We have no debt. We do have around $11 million in our Series E Preferred shares. It’s a very friendly preferred. It’s owned by a couple of our directors, predominantly Barry Honig. There is …read more