Heritage seeks e-gold

By Libby Middlebrook

Heritage Gold is expanding into the technology industry to boost its share price.

The New Zealand resources company has signed an initial agreement to buy 100 per cent of E-cademy, an Australia-based company that specialises in interactive learning technology and employs 10.

Heritage plans to list the E-cademy on the New Zealand Stock Exchange during the next six months, followed by the Australian exchange.

The managing director of Heritage, Peter Atkinson, said: "We're planning to maintain our mineral interests but we see that gold in the short term is not going to increase shareholder value.

"We wanted to put some value into shares for our shareholders. Internet is an area that is popular with investors and that's our reason for doing it."

E-cademy's intellectual property includes an interactive learning programme that can be used by universities and schools to communicate live with students via the internet.