Subscription and Placing to Raise £5.4 million

RNS Number : 0391I

IronRidge Resources Limited

21 November 2018

 

21 November 2018

IronRidge Resources Limited

(AIM: IRR)

Subscription and Placing to Raise £5.4 million

IronRidge Resources Limited ("IronRidge" or the "Company") is pleased to announce it has raised approximately £5.4 million before expenses through a subscription for, and placing of, in aggregate, 27,022,000 new ordinary shares in the Company at a price of 20 pence per share (the "Issue Price").  The Company will primarily utilise these funds towards the development of its gold and lithium projects in Ghana, Chad and Côte d'Ivoire in Africa.

Binding commitments to subscribe (the "Subscription") for a total of 24,522,000 new ordinary shares (the "Subscription Shares") at the Issue Price have been received from Assore Limited (the Company's largest shareholder), Sumitomo Corporation, Vincent Mascolo (the Company's Chief Executive Officer), Neil Herbert, (the Company's Non-Executive Chairman) and other subscribers.  In addition to the Subscription, the Company has also placed (the "Placing") 2,500,000 new ordinary shares (the "Placing Shares") at the Issue Price with a number of placees.

Details of the Subscription and Placing

The Subscription Shares and the Placing Shares have been allotted and issued conditional, inter alia, on their admission to trading on AIM.

An application has been made to the London Stock Exchange for the Subscription Shares and the Placing Shares, which will rank pari passu with the Company's existing issued ordinary shares, to be admitted to trading on AIM. Dealings in the Placing Shares and Subscription Shares are expected to commence at 8:00 a.m. on or around 26 November 2018 ("Admission").

Following the issue of the Placing Shares the Company's total issued share capital will comprise 308,968,158 ordinary shares. In accordance with FCA Disclosure Guidance and Transparency Rules ("DTRs"), the Company has 308,968,158 ordinary Shares in issue, each share carrying the right to one vote.  The Company does not hold any ordinary shares in Treasury.

Use of proceeds

It is intended that the proceeds of the Placing will primarily contribute to working capital and the ongoing development of the Company's pipeline of gold and lithium projects in Ghana, Chad and Côte d'Ivoire.

Related party transaction

The Subscription by each of Assore Limited, Sumitomo Corporation, Vincent Mascolo and Neil Herbert constitute related party transactions under London Stock Exchange's AIM Rules for Companies.  With the exception of Vincent Mascolo, Kenichiro Tsubaki (a nominee of Sumitomo Corporation), Bastiaan Van Aswegen and Alistair McAdam (both nominees of Assore Limited) and Neil Herbert, the Company's Directors consider, having consulted with its nominated adviser, that the terms of the transaction are fair and reasonable insofar as its shareholders are concerned.

Revised shareholdings following Admission

Following the issue of the Subscription and Placing Shares, the revised shareholdings of the following substantial shareholders and participating Directors will be:

	Current Shareholding	Subscription Shares	Shareholding on Admission	Percentage of enlarged issued share capital
Assore Limited	81,316,667	15,500,000	96,816,667	31.34%
DGR Global Limited	68,522,667	-	68,522,667	22.18%
Sumitomo Corporation	30,543,568	1,250,000	31,793,568	10.29%
Vincent Mascolo	11,900,000	1,600,000	13,500,000	4.37%
Cambrian Limited*	-	500,000	500,000	0.16%

*The beneficial owners of which are Neil Herbert and his wife.  

Vincent Mascolo, Chief Executive Officer of IronRidge, said:

"We have made significant progress over the course of 2018, having focused on enhancing the Company's asset base.  Most notably, the Ghanaian Cape Coast Lithium Project has continued to deliver exciting and potentially world class lithium grades and drill intersections, whilst in Chad, we have uncovered a substantial gold bearing province with a surface footprint rivalling some of today's largest operating gold mines.

"In Cote d'Ivoire we have an extensive, highly prospective and strategically contiguous gold (~3,200km²) and lithium (~1,200km²) portfolios along major gold producing structural trends.

"The capital raise, in which we have secured £5.4 million, will enable the Director's to execute their strategy to further develop the Company's highly prospective gold and lithium assets.

"We would like to thank our existing shareholders for their continued support, and would like to welcome our new shareholders to the register.  We look forward to updating the market on our further developments in due course."

NOTIFICATION AND PUBLIC DISCLOSURE OF TRANSACTIONS BY PERSONS DISCHARGING MANAGERIAL RESPONSIBILITIES AND PERSONS CLOSELY ASSOCIATED WITH THEM:

1.	Details of the person discharging managerial responsibilities/person closely associated
a)	Name:	1.    Vincent Mascolo 2.    Neil Herbert
2.	Reason for the notification
a)	Position/status:	1.    Chief Executive Officer 2.    Non-Executive Chairman
b)	Initial notification/Amendment:	Initial notification
3.	Details of the issuer, emission allowance market participant, auction platform, auctioneer or auction monitor
a)	Name:	IronRidge Resources Limited
b)	LEI:	213800H1JY3J7BB6BN06
4.	Details of the transaction(s): section to be repeated for (i) each type of instrument; (ii) each type of transaction; (iii) each date; and (iv) each place where transactions have been conducted.
a)	Description of the financial instrument, type of instrument: Identification code:	Depositary Interests of no par value ISIN: AU0000XINEX3
b)	Nature of the transaction:	Issue of ordinary shares for Subscription in private placement
c)	Price(s) and volume(s):	Price(s) Volume(s) 1.    20p 2.    20p 1.    1,600,000 2.    500,000
d)	Aggregated information: Aggregated volume: Price:	Single transaction as in 4 c) above Price(s) Volume(s) 1.    20p 2.    20p 1.    1,600,000 2.    500,000
e)	Date of the transaction:	1.    21 November 2018 2.    21 November 2018 1.    08.00 GMT 2.    08.00 GMT
f)	Place of the transaction:	Outside of a trading venue

THIS ANNOUNCEMENT CONTAINS INSIDE INFORMATION FOR THE PURPOSES OF ARTICLE 7 OF THE MARKET ABUSE REGULATION EU 596/2014 ("MAR"). IN ADDITION, MARKET SOUNDINGS (AS DEFINED IN MAR) WERE TAKEN IN RESPECT OF THE MATTERS CONTAINED IN THIS ANNOUNCEMENT, WITH THE RESULT THAT CERTAIN PERSONS BECAME AWARE OF SUCH INSIDE INFORMATION AS PERMITTED BY MAR. THAT INSIDE INFORMATION IS SET OUT IN THIS ANNOUNCEMENT AND HAS BEEN DISCLOSED AS SOON AS POSSIBLE IN ACCORDANCE WITH PARAGRAPH 7 OF ARTICLE 17 OF MAR.  UPON THE PUBLICATION OF THIS ANNOUNCEMENT, THE INSIDE INFORMATION IS NOW CONSIDERED TO BE IN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN AND SUCH PERSONS SHALL THEREFORE CEASE TO BE IN POSSESSION OF INSIDE INFORMATION IN RELATION TO THE COMPANY AND ITS SECURITIES.

For any further information please contact:

IronRidge Resources Limited
Vincent Mascolo (Chief Executive Officer)	Tel: [phone]
Karl Schlobohm (Company Secretary)
SP Angel Corporate Finance LLP	Tel: [phone]
Nominated Adviser and Broker
Jeff Keating Charlie Bouverat Yellow Jersey PR Limited Charles Goodwin Harriet Jackson	Tel: [phone]

Notes to Editors:

IronRidge Resources is an AIM-listed mineral exploration company with frontier assets in both Australia and West Africa, with two province scale projects in Gabon, and promising and advanced titanium and bauxite projects in Queensland, Australia. IronRidge's corporate strategy is to create and sustain shareholder value through the discovery of world-class and globally demanded commodities.

Ghana

The Company entered into earn-in arrangements with Obotan Minerals Limited, Merlink Resources Limited, Barari Developments Limited and Joy Transporters Limited of Ghana, West Africa, securing the first access rights to acquire the historical Egyasimanku Hill spodumene rich lithium deposit, estimated to be in the order of 1.48Mt at 1.67% Li₂O and surrounding tenements. The portfolio covers some 684km² with the newly discovered Ewoyaa project including drill intersections of 128m @ 1.21% Li₂O from 3m and 111m @ 1.35% Li₂O from 37m, and a further identified 20km strike of pegmatite vein swarms. The tenure package is also highly prospective for tin, tantalum, niobium, caesium and gold, which occur as accessory minerals within the pegmatites and host formations.

Chad

The Company entered into an agreement with Tekton Minerals Pte Ltd of Singapore concerning its portfolio covering 900km² of highly prospective gold and other mineral projects in Chad, Central Africa. IronRidge acquired 100% of Tekton including its projects and team to advance the Dorothe, Echbara, Am Ouchar, Nabagay and Kalaka licenses, which host multiple, large scale gold projects. Trenching results at Dorothe, including 84m @ 1.66g/t Au (including 6m @ 5.49g/t & 8m @ 6.23g/t), 4m @ 18.77g/t Au (including 2m @ 36.2g/t), 32m @ 2.02g/t Au (including 18m @ 3.22g/t), 24m @ 2.53g/t Au (including 6m @ 4.1g/t (including 2m @ 6.2g/t) and 2m @ 6.14g/t), 14.12g/t Au over 4m, 34.1g/t over 2m and 63.2g/t over 1m, have defined significant gold mineralised quartz veining zones over a 3km by 1km area including the steep dipping 'Main Vein' and shallow dipping 'Sheeted Vein' zones.

Côte d'Ivoire

The Company entered into conditional joint venture arrangements in Côte d'Ivoire, West Africa; securing access rights to highly prospective gold mineralised structures and pegmatite occurrences covering a combined 3,187km² and 1,172km² area respectively. The projects are well located within access of an extensive bitumen road network and along strike from multi-million ounce gold projects and mines.

Australia

Monogorilby is prospective for province scale titanium and bauxite, with an initial maiden resource of 54.9MT of premium DSO bauxite. Monogorilby is located in central Queensland, within a short trucking distance of the rail system leading north to the Port of Bundaberg. It is also located within close proximity of the active Queensland Rail network heading south towards the Port of Brisbane.

May Queen is located in Central Queensland within IRR's wholly owned Monogorilby license package and is highly prospective for gold. Historic drilling completed during the 1980s intersected multiple high-grade gold intervals, including 2m @ 73.4 g/t Au (including 1m at 145g/t), 4m @ 38.8g/t Au (at end of hole) and 3m @ 18.9g/t Au, over an approximate 100m strike hosting numerous parallel vein systems, open to the north-west and south-east.

Wholly owned Quaggy contains highly anomalous platinum, palladium, nickel, cobalt and copper exploration targets and is located in Central Queensland, within a short trucking distance of the dormant rail system to the Port of Bundaberg. It is also located within close proximity of the active Queensland Rail network heading south towards the Port of Brisbane.

Gabon

Tchibanga is located in south-western Gabon, in the Nyanga Province, within 10-60km of the Atlantic coastline.  This project comprises two exploration licenses, Tchibanga and Tchibanga Nord, which cover a combined area of 3,396km² and include over 90km of prospective lithologies and the historic Mont Pele iron occurrence.

Belinga Sud is Located in the north east of Gabon in the Ogooue-Ivindo Province, approximately 400km east of the capital city of Libreville. IRR's licence lies between the main Belinga Iron Ore Deposit, believed to be one of the world's largest untapped reserves of iron ore with an estimated 1bt of iron ore at a grade >60% Fe, and the route of the Trans Gabonese railway, which currently carries manganese ore and timber from Franceville to the Port of Owendo in Libreville.

Corporate

IronRidge made its AIM debut in February 2015, successfully securing strategic alliances with three international companies: Assore Limited of South Africa, Sumitomo Corporation of Japan and DGR Global Limited of Australia. Assore is a high- grade iron, chrome and manganese mining specialist. Sumitomo Corporation is a global resources, mining marketing and trading conglomerate. DGR Global is a project generation and exploration specialist.

 

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