White Cliff Minerals’ woes are continuing in 2019 with the junior explorer now needing to sack staff and downsize its office just to keep the lights on.

The company (ASX:WCN) had just $406,000 cash in the bank at the end of the December quarter and expects a cash burn of $520,000 this quarter.

White Cliff did, however, complete a partially underwritten rights issue before the end of last year, allowing it to repay a $600,000 loan and become debt free.

But the company has still needed to cut its admin staff and farewell its senior geologist. Michael Langoulant has quit as company secretary and CFO and managing director Todd Hibberd has agreed to waive his $30,000 in director fees each year.

Shares slid over 5 per cent to 1.8c on Thursday morning.

White Cliff Minerals (ASX:WCN) shares over the past year.
White Cliff Minerals (ASX:WCN) shares over the past year.

White Cliff says it can save about $500,000 by “rightsizing its management and exploration team, and rationalising and re-negotiating various administration expenditures”.

The company stressed though that the reduction of headcount would not impact its ability to continue with exploration at its 90 per cent-owned Aucu copper and gold project in Kyrgyzstan and its gold, cobalt and nickel projects in Western Australia.

White Cliff is now also looking for a smaller office in the Perth CBD with the aim of halving its tenancy costs.

In mid-December, the troubled explorer faced a push by shareholders to have one of its directors evicted.

White Cliff received a “249D” notice calling for a meeting to be held to allow shareholders to vote on the removal of director Rodd Boland.

The day before Christmas, White Cliff announced Mr Boland had decided to step down.

White Cliff’s share price has continued its decline over the past year, dropping nearly 95 per cent since March 2018 to as low as 1.2c in late November.

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