Drilling company launches public stock offering

A start-up drilling company in Elko hopes to raise $450,000 through a public offering, and plans to spend most of the money to acquire drilling equipment.

In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission last week, West-Core Drilling Inc. said it plans to sell 1.5 million shares to the public at 30 cents each. The company's officers and directors are handling the sales effort.

The company said in a prospectus that it currently is under contract to start a drilling program for Premium Exploration, and it is also under consideration for four other mineral-exploration drilling contracts.

If it wins all of the proposed contracts, it would need two rigs. West-Core Drilling Inc. hopes to use the $400,000 from proceeds of the public offering as a down payment to purchase two drilling rigs.

If that works out, the company said it plans to purchase two more drilling rigs assuming it has contracts that would keep each of the rigs working for at least six months.

Founded in 2008, West-Core Drilling has yet to generate any revenue.

Travis Stephenson, its president, is a real estate investor and attorney in Colorado Springs. Jeff Camsell of Elko, its chief operating officer, has worked in the drilling industry since 1990 and is a former sales manager for a major mining equipment company. Craig Kidwell, its treasurer, is an attorney in Elko.

Along with the company's officers, a major shareholder of West-Core is Ian Fournier, a drilling company executive in Elko.

Stephenson, Camsell, Kidwell and Fournier each would hold 19.05 percent of the West-Core Drilling stock if they're successful with the public offering.