Investors look the other way after White Tiger Gold’s loss, management’s 800% pay hike

In early afternoon trade the miner was trading at $0.43 on the Toronto big board near its highs for the day. Around 117,000 shares in the $123 million company had changed hands by 1:40 pm EST compared to the daily average of 291,000.

Despite the gains, White Tiger Gold is not worth even a tenth of what is was in January last year when you’ve had to spend $4.80 to lay your hands on the stock. The counter started 2012 at 87c.

The filing had been delayed for a week because of “extensive additional procedures required to finalize the consolidation of the company’s accounts with those of recently acquired Century Mining Corporation.”

The statements showed the company swinging into an operating loss of $8.8 million for the quarter ended December and an operating loss of $7.3 million for the whole of 2011.

Net losses came in at a shade under $10.5 million for the year which as mainly due to what the company termed “administrative costs” that totaled $15.2 million (it was only $800,000 in 2010).

White Tiger said the administrative costs “consisted mainly of $8.8 million in auditing, accounting and advisory fees” relating to the tie-up with Century Mining and $2.6 million of “share based compensation.”

In total management’s remuneration jumped to $3.9 million from $422,000 the year before.

White Tiger hopes to go ahead with a pre-feasibility study on its Nasedkino project in Siberia and own number of exploration assets in Russia.

The company, based out of the British Virgin Islands, also operates the Lamaque Mine in Val D’Or Quebec; the Savkino heap leach gold operation located in southeastern Siberia and the San Juan gold mine in San Juan Valley, Peru.

White Tiger, controlled by Russian investor Maxim Finskiy, had a tumultuous 2011, installing new senior management and taking over Century Mining at a substantial premium in a deal valued at the time (in March) at more than $700 million.

It was only in November after months of delays due to action from unhappy minority shareholders who said Century’s main assets – Lamaque and San Juan – were being undervalued, that White Tiger was able to seal the deal.

Ironically it is Lamaque and to a lesser extent San Juan, which have not been performing to expectations due to lower grades and production rates, that have been dragging White Tiger down.

White Tiger is looking at expansion at each of its operating mines and in December signed a $150 million debt deal for Savkino which it is already applying.

The company produced 53,000 oz last year and is hoping to double that in 2012, mainly on the back of higher mill rates and grades at Lamaque.

Click here for management’s discussion and highlighted financial statements of White Tiger’s 2011.