Western Desert Resources (ASX: WDR) chairman Mick Billing has used his annual general meeting address to encourage shareholders to continue supporting the company as it enters a rewarding period.
Mr Billing, who told shareholders in 2007 to "stick around for the ride - it will definitely be interesting, and I sincerely hope it will also be profitable”, said he believed the company would continue to prosper into 2010.
"There is no doubt that we have got the interesting part right – and it looks like the profitable part is also a fair chance," Mr Billing said.
"Certainly for those shareholders who have supported us from the beginning and through some difficult times, the upward movement in our share price over the past few months has been some reward."
In the afternoon following the release of the AGM presentation, shares in Western Desert were trading around 55.5c.
Mr Billing said through the last year, the company had been busy "kicking goals", while the market in general has experienced rather turbulent times - some significant lows, followed by a partial recovery.
The low point of the company's year was the investment in Thor Mining, specifically to access the Molyhil tungsten and molybdenum project
"At the time of that investment, the price of molybdenum and tungsten were, like a bunch of other commodities, quite strong," Mr Billing said.
"The global financial crisis savaged those prices and unlike some other commodities, any improvement has not been sustained.
"We are concerned that any long term improvement in demand for molybdenum & tungsten may take some time. It may be therefore some time before Western Desert Resources shareholders get any joy from this project.
"In the meantime Thor is looking at diversifying & we hope for some encouraging news in due course."
On the other hand, the company's Roper Bar joint venture with ITOCHU has prospered, with Mr Billing said it was looking like the project could develop into a significant mining operation over the next few years.
"ITOCHU are proving to be as good a partner in this venture as we could hope for and we are very pleased indeed to have them involved," he said.
"We have published inferred resource statements for a very small part of the project thus far and firmly believe that we have uncovered the tip of a very large iceberg."
The Mountain Creek project nearby Roper Bar is also a very promising iron ore opportunity, according to Mr Billing.
On the copper-gold front, the company's Rover project in joint venture with TNG will see some drilling early in the new year.
Neighbouring tenement holders Westgold and Adelaide Resources have published some outstanding results over the last year, with the company finally in a position to drill test up to 8 anomalies identified nearby.
The Tennant Creek area has produced some spectacular orebodies over time and Mr Billing was hopeful the company would uncover at least one more in the next few months.
"We are earning an 80% interest in this project from TNG & expect that we will be close to having achieved that by the time we have tested these targets," he said.
Meanwhile, the company is in the process of conducting a fully underwritten renounceable rights issue to raise just over $8 million.
"On the date of our last AGM our share price was 6.1 cents. Today it closed at 58 cents, an increase of 851%," he said.
"We believe that the offer is very attractively priced to encourage maximum shareholder participation and we encourage you to participate," Mr Billing said.