As if engineering a 47-fold increase in the St Barbara share price during his first two years in charge was not impressive enough, Bob Vassie is eyeing a goal that is arguably more significant.
The gold miner will repay the last of its debt within ten weeks, ending a four and a half year battle that looked lost in 2014, and putting St Barbara into the rarified ranks of "net cash" miners like South32 and OZ Minerals.
Elimination of the debt will be a major milestone for the Melbourne based miner, which had its credit rating downgraded to junk in 2014, when the debt pile stood at close to $320 million.
Goldman Sachs ceased coverage of St Barbara in July 2014 over its "significant" balance sheet hurdles, and now the likes of Macquarie and Deutsche rank the company among their top picks in the gold space, with predictions of free cash flow yields of close to 18 per cent.
Mr Vassie agreed that clearing the balance sheet is a more substantial achievement in the context of St Barbara's future than a share price bounce, and quarterly results published on Wednesday demonstrate the business is continuing to spin-off cash, generating $76 million in free cash flow during the December quarter from gold production of 98,982 ounces.
More recently, the focus has turned to growth, with Mr Vassie's next major goal being to diversify the company's production beyond its Gwalia and Simberi mines.
"We are certainly spending a lot more time looking outside of ourselves," he said.
"If we could bolt-on another cash generating mine, it would diversify our production base and reduce the reliance on Gwalia, so we are certainly looking for that."
But Mr Vassie said all sorts of transactions were possible, including taking over a smaller company, a merger or being acquired by a larger company.
"I would like to have another 250,000 ounces, I would like it to be in Australia, and I would like it to be all in sustaining cost of $1000 or less and I would like mine life of ten to fifteen years, and that is pretty hard to get in Australia," he said.
"To have no debt and cashflow coming out at close to $80 million per quarter, there is a lot more you can now do."
Many pundits expect any acquisition to involve scrip, given the recent appreciation in St Barbara shares.
But Mr Vassie said the company was receiving far more offers of financial help than it was two years ago.
"I don't think we need to do anything tomorrow, but now we are poised because we have this balance sheet we really need to be looking at how we add value to our shareholders through inorganic means," he said.
"It is driven by my real wish to have another producing asset."
In the meantime, the company hopes to unlock further growth within its existing assets.
The company is exploring for gold in PNG's Tatau islands in partnership with Newcrest, hoping that any discovery could use St Barbara's existing processing facilities at the Simberi mine.
The company is looking to extend the life of its flagship Gwalia mine by accessing deep ores that are close to 2000 metres below the surface.
Mining at Gwalia, which has enough reserves to operate until at least 2024, is currently about 1600 metres below the surface.
St Barbara shares closed 6.33 per cent higher at $2.35 on Wednesday; a rise that Mr Vassie thought warranted some context.
"We've gone up 14¢ today and we used to be 7¢ as our whole share price," he said.
