Interview with Terry Filbert, CEO of East Asia Minerals (TSX-V:EAS)East Asia Minerals is a TSX-listed gold and precious metals developer with two assets in Indonesia: Sangihe, and Miwah, the former flagship asset that gave East Asia Minerals a C$600M market cap. The market cap is C$3M today.When it comes to East Asia Minerals' fall from grace, Filbert is pointing his finger. He blames self-interest promoters who squashed the stock by trying to take the company over. It's been a tumultuous ride for East Asia minerals over the last 5-years or so, involving multiple CEOs, deals falling through and the suspension of Miwah because of forestry licencing issues. Filbert states the company has over US$20M of drilling data. The market is giving zero credit for this.Indonesia. As a mining jurisdiction, there is a lot of red tape. Permitting and licencing is a difficult, protracted process. What does Filbert think? He states that to be successful, you have to "be on the ground," you have to be there "all the time," and you need to have a "network" to deal with problems that, in Indonesia, come thick and fast. Filbert won't have a project in Indonesia unless he is there, because it is a "guaranteed way to lose money."What does the team's background look like? Filbert has a track record in country, with business ventures in Hong Kong, China and Indonesia, including exporting timber. Any specific mining experience before East Asia Minerals? Filbert states he is a surfer just looking for the next wave: a "chronic entrepreneur." There is some geological expertise at East Asia Minerals, but it doesn't appear there are that many mining experts involved.East Asia Minerals has some institutional shareholders. Sprott holds c.14% because it invested in the original deal and there are several other major legacy players involved. Filbert wants to ramp up to 2,000oz gold per month in 15-months' time and is asking for around C$5M to get into production at 1,000oz per month, on top of clearing the decks with the C$1.3M that they current owe. He is also hopeful the company can solve the issues at Miwah eventually, but the focus right now is 100% on Sangihe. The operation would require RC drilling and most of the ore body is at surface, so could it be economic? Filbert claims that East Asia Minerals is close on the licencing/permitting front, and only has 2 more to get.Any plan to get Miwah resurrected? It's not on the books right now, and while Filbert has a plan to restructure things, there are plenty of obstacles in the way, especially surrounding unpaid taxes and fees, and a lack of reports for the last 6-years. East Asia Minerals doesn't appear to be in a strong position on this front. Right now, there are many other places Filbert would rather allocate capital too. Will getting into production at Sanighe free up some cash flow to get the company back on the right track? It remains to be seen.How will Calibre Mining raise this capital? Filbert has assigned a new member of the team to focus on dealing with public markets. He is aware that turning back the clock to a time East Asia Minerals was private would help things, but hindsight isn't helpful right now. He admits he has made mistakes that have delayed funding, but he now believes he has the right people to get this back on track. We appreciate Filbert's honesty, but will investors have faith in his competence? He admits he "doesn't know how to do it." These are not encouraging words from gold mining CEO, even if they are candid.What did you make of Terry Filbert? Can East Asia Minerals restore its pride and get reward investors who have seen the share price decimated? For their sake, we're hoping so. Company page: https://eastasiaminerals.com/Make smarter investment decisions, subscribe here: https://www.cruxinvestor.comFor FREE unbiased investment information, follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook:https://twitter.com/cruxinvestorhttps://www.linkedin.com/company/crux...https://www.facebook.com/cruxinvestorTake advantage, hear it here first: https://www.youtube.com/CRUXinvestor