AGM -Chairman's remarks -Voting -Grant of share...

AGM 2016 - Chairman's remarks - Voting - Grant of share options

Chairman's remarks at AGM

At the shareholder’s annual meeting held today, the Chairman, John Kearney, made a presentation outlining the company’s plans for the coming year and his expectation that the price of zinc will move significantly higher in the near future, due to reduced production worldwide from mine closures and forecasts of increases in demand, and that these higher zinc prices would continue for a number of years.

Mr Kearney noted that the company had previously announced that it was updating its earlier scoping and economic studies on its Parys Mountain zinc/lead/copper/silver/gold property in Wales. He reported that this updated scoping study is being prepared by Micon International Limited and by Fairport Engineering Limited, both of which are acknowledged experts and leaders in the resources sector, and it is expected that the updated study will be presented to the company later in the autumn.

Grant of share options

The company also announces that it has today granted a total of 3,500,000 options to subscribe for ordinary shares at a price of 2 pence per share under the unapproved share option scheme to the directors in the amounts set out below:

Bill Hooley                          Chief Executive                               1,000,000

Danesh Varma                   Finance Director                             1,000,000

John Kearney                     Chairman                                          500,000

Howard Miller                     Non executive Director                     500,000

David Lean                         Non executive Director                     500,000

These share options, which were granted by the remuneration committee and approved by the board, will vest after one year from date of grant, with a term of five years expiring on the 30 September 2021.  All options are subject to a performance criterion, namely that the company’s share price performance over the period from grant to exercise must exceed that of the companies in the top quartile of the FTSE 100 index.

The company points out that all the directors have waived entitlement to remuneration for more than the last 24 months.

Voting at the AGM

In respect of the voting at the company’s AGM held on 28 September 2016 the directors are pleased to report that all resolutions were passed unanimously on a show of hands.

The valid proxies recorded in respect of voting at the meeting were as follows:

	Resolution	In Favour	Against	Withheld
1	To receive the report and accounts	58,705,088	750	0
2	To approve the directors’ remuneration policy report	58,680,949	24,486	400
3	To approve the directors’ remuneration report	58,685,685	19,250	900
4	To reappoint John F. Kearney as a director	58,689,460	16,375	0
5	To reappoint Bill Hooley as a director	58,690,085	15,750	0
6	To reappoint David Lean as a director	58,690,585	15,750	500
7	To reappoint Howard Miller as a director	58,690,085	15,750	0
8	Withdrawn
9	To reappoint Danesh Varma as a director	58,705,085	750	0
10	To reappoint Mazars LLP as auditors	58,703,035	750	2,050
11	To authorise the directors to determine the remuneration of the auditor	58,705,085	750	0
12	To authorise the directors to issue new share capital	58,683,724	21,611	500
13	To dis-apply pre-emption rights in respect of certain issues of shares	58,682,299	17,800	5,736

Notes

1. Votes were received in respect of 58,705,835 shares representing 36.6% of the issued share capital.

2. Any proxy appointments which gave discretion to the chairman have been included in the “For” total.

3. The full text of the resolutions is shown in the notice of the AGM which is available in the annual report and on the website.

Total voting rights

The issued ordinary share capital of the company is 160,608,051 shares with voting rights; there are no shares in treasury.

The above figure may be used by shareholders as the denominator for the calculations which will determine whether they are required to notify their interest in the company, or any change to that interest, under the FSA’s Disclosure and Transparency Rules.

Following the grant of the share options set out above, the aggregate share options outstanding will represent 5.3% of the 160,608,051 ordinary shares in issue.

For further information, please contact:

Danesh Varma, Finance Director [phone]