Placing and Subscription raises £860,000

RNS Number : 6221N

BlueRock Diamonds PLC

10 August 2017

 

10 August 2017

BlueRock Diamonds PLC

("BlueRock" or the "Company" or "BRD")

Placing and Subscription raises £860,000

BlueRock Diamonds plc, the AIM listed diamond mining company which owns and operates the Kareevlei Diamond mine in the Kimberley region of South Africa, is pleased to announce that it has raised an aggregate of £860,000 (before expenses) via the issue of 68,800,000 new ordinary shares of 1 pence each in the capital of the Company (the "New Shares") through a placing and subscription at a price of 1.25 pence per New Share (the "Fundraising").

The funds will be used to further develop mining operations at Kareevlei Mine. 

The Company's blast programme, at the Kareevlei Mine, has now completed the removal of the calcrete cap (at a level of 0m to approximately 10m) from the entire kimberlite pipe and by mid-August 2017, the Company will have completed the blasting and processing of the entire first level of Kimberlite (10m to 20m) which comprised calcretised kimberlite.  Thereafter, the Company will blast the lower level kimberlite where test results indicate a marked increase in grade is expected which should allow the mine to move into operational profitability.  

Production continues to improve with the Company having achieved 20,000 tonnes of production during July 2017.  August 2017 has started well and it is hoped that there will be an increase on July's tonnage.

The Company continues to evaluate the whole area covered within the 3,000 hectares of the Mining Right and will shortly be test drilling at a minimal cost certain anomalies that have been identified.  Once confident that current operations are operating as expected, it is the board's intention to explore further on the current site (which has a total of five identified kimberlite pipes) and to commence the bulk sampling work on project Jubilee.

Adam Waugh stated: "These funds will enable us to complete some minor modifications to our plant designed to increase production volumes further and provide the working capital to put us in a position to achieve our short term goal of 25,000 tonnes production per month.  We will soon be mining the sub 20 metre level of Kimberlite where we expect to see an uplift in our grade of diamonds recovered and a move to profitable mining. This will put us in a good position to optimise our known resource at Kareevlei and explore new opportunities. We look forward to providing further updates in due course."

Extension of loan facility

As previously announced on 20 July 2017, the Company has now confirmed that each of Tim Leslie, Mark Poole and Segar Properties (Hyde Park) Limited, a company wholly owned by Paul Beck, have extended the maturity date of the six-month loan facility of up to £150,000 (which has been fully drawn) entered into on 15 March 2017 (the "March loan") from the current maturity date of 15 September 2017 such that it will now mature on 31 December 2017. As previously indicated each of Tim Leslie and Segar Properties (Hyde Park) Limited have each provided a further £20,000 such that the total March Loan facility has increased to up to £190,000. The March Loan carries a coupon of 10% per annum, payable at the end of the term and contains no conversion provisions.

Director Dealings and Related Party Transaction

Adam Waugh, Chief Executive Officer of the Company has agreed to subscribe for 4,000,000 New shares in the Fundraising. Adam Waugh is considered to be a "related party" as defined under the AIM Rules and accordingly, their participation in the Fundraising constitutes a related party transaction for the purposes of Rule 13 of the AIM Rules.

The Directors independent of the Fundraising, consider, having consulted with the Company's nominated adviser, SP Angel, that the terms of Adam Waugh's participation in the Fundraising are fair and reasonable insofar as the Company's shareholders are concerned.

In connection with the Extension of Loan Facility each of Tim Leslie and Paul Beck, as Directors of the Company, and Mark Poole, as a substantial shareholder in the Company, are considered to be "related parties" as defined under the AIM Rules and accordingly, the Extension of the Loan Facility constitutes a related party transaction for the purposes of Rule 13 of the AIM Rules.

The Directors independent of the March Loan extension, consider, having consulted with the Company's nominated adviser, SP Angel, that the terms of the Extension of Loan Facility provided by Tim Leslie, Segar Properties (Hyde Park) Limited  and Mark Poole are fair and reasonable insofar as the Company's shareholders are concerned.

Details of the Fundraising

Application will be made for the New Shares, which will rank pari passu with the existing Ordinary Shares, to be admitted to trading on AIM ("Admission"). It is expected that Admission will become effective and dealings will commence on or around 15 August 2017.

Total Voting Rights

Following the issue of the New Shares, the issued share capital of the Company will consist of 136,709,580 Ordinary Shares. No shares were held in treasury at the date of this announcement. The total current voting rights in the Company are therefore 136,709,580.

The above total current voting rights number is the figure which may be used by shareholders as the denominator for the calculation by which they will determine if they are required to notify their interest in, or a change to their interest in the Company.

Market Abuse Regulation (MAR) Disclosure

Certain information contained in this announcement would have been deemed inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of Regulation (EU) No 596/2014 until the release of this announcement.

For further information, please contact: 

BlueRock Diamonds plc Adam Waugh, CEO	[e-mail]
SP Angel (NOMAD and Broker) Stuart Gledhill Lindsay Mair	[phone]
Yellow Jersey (PR and IR) Felicity Winkles Joe Burgess Katie Bairsto	[phone]

About BlueRock Diamonds plc (AIM: BRD)

BlueRock is a diamond mining company with activities in the Kimberley region of South Africa. BlueRock own a diamond processing plant and the mining right over the Kareevlei Tenements in South Africa.

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:	Adam Waugh
2.	Reason for the notification
a)	Position/status:	Chief Executive Officer
b)	Initial notification/Amendment:	Initial notification
3.	Details of the issuer, emission allowance market participant, auction platform, auctioneer or auction monitor
a)	Name:	BlueRock Diamonds plc
b)	LEI:	213800LVSJ2RNI3SSN92
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:	Ordinary shares of 1 pence each  GB00B84H1764
b)	Nature of the transaction:	Participation in the Fundraising
c)	Price(s) and volume(s):	Price(s) Volume(s) 1.25p 4,000,000
d)	Aggregated information: Aggregated volume: Price:	Single transaction as in 4 c) above Price(s) Volume(s) 1.25p 4,000,000
e)	Date of the transaction:	10 August 2017
f)	Place of the transaction:	Outside a trading venue

 

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