Result of AGM

RNS Number : 4234X

GCM Resources PLC

06 December 2010

 



Date: 6 December 2010

GCM RESOURCES PLC

(AIM: GCM)

Results of AGM

At the annual general meeting of GCM Resources plc held today, all of the ordinary and special resolutions as set out in the notice of this meeting were duly passed.  The following is the text of the Chairman's statement to the meeting.

Phulbari

The Phulbari Coal Project remains the key opportunity for the Company.  We continue to believe that it can provide the fastest, lowest risk and most reliable means of delivering the commercial energy required to bring a step-change in electricity availability for the people of Bangladesh and we remain ready to move the project forward when its Scheme of Development receives approval from the Government of Bangladesh.

We have continued to cement relationships with the key players within the Bangladesh Government and there is almost universal acceptance that coal has a unique role to play in meeting the country's energy requirements.  Similarly, it is now accepted that open pit mining is the only feasible means of delivering the volumes of coal required in an economically, socially and environmentally acceptable way.  This work is ongoing and Graham Taggart, our Finance Director, continues to be based in Dhaka, and Steve Bywater our Chief Executive is spending the majority of his time there.  We have continued to ensure that the key decision makers have a thorough understanding of modern large scale mining and Steve Bywater has recently accompanied the visit of the Bangladesh parliamentary standing committee to existing open pit mines and coal fired power stations.  Following this visit the Committee recommended last week that the country moves to extraction of its coal reserves using open cut mining methods.

Approval for the Scheme of Development remains a political decision outside our control and so frustratingly, we are not able to give an indication of timing for that approval.  We do remain optimistic that approval will be forthcoming and as time passes, the case for developing the Project becomes even more compelling.  A substantial increase in electricity availability and reliability is necessary for Bangladesh to achieve any of its development goals - be it the Millennium Development Goals, the Government's poverty alleviation goals or developing the country's capacity to manage the effects of climate change.  Whereas there was once a view that future generation capacity would be based on gas, it is now evident that known gas reserves are insufficient and that extraction of the country's substantial coal reserves is the most viable option.

The Phulbari Coal Project is the only coal project in the country that has been subject to a full social and environmental impact assessment and feasibility study and so this is the only project for which the economics and time table to development are known with any certainty.  It would take at least two years to bring one of the other potential projects in the country to this stage.

To summarise, while we cannot give guidance as to the timing of approval, we remain confident that approval will be forthcoming as the Phulbari project has a unique role to play in the development of Bangladesh.

Other investments

We have considerable experience, expertise and relationships in the mining sector.  In preceding years we have used this to make investments in other junior mining companies and, despite the volatility in the equity markets, these have performed well.  Since the end of the year we have sold our shares in Aura Energy Limited and our interests in the GCM/Aura West African joint ventures at a profit.  We continue to have interests of just under 3.5% of Coal of Africa and just over 3% of Polo Resources Limited from which we received a dividend of £2.2 million pounds in August.  We currently have cash and liquid resources of £21 million, sufficient to fund our activities for the foreseeable future.

Proxy voting totals

The resolutions were all passed on the show of hands and no polls were taken.  The Chairman was appointed proxy for the following number of votes.

	Resolutions	Votes for	Discretion	Against	Withheld
1	To receive and adopt the Company's accounts	19,256,978	22,128	-	70,000
2	To reappoint Steve Bywater as a director	19,256,978	22,128		70,000
3	To reappoint Graham Taggart as a director	19,256,978	22,128		70,000
4	To re-appoint Ernst & Young as auditors	19,194,649	22,128	5,200	127,129
5	To authorise the company to purchase own shares	19,256,361	22,128	217	70,400
6	To authorise directors to allot shares	19,181,468	23,061	59,217	85,360
7	To disapply pre-emption rights	19,120,341	23,061	60,494	145,210

For further information:

GCM Resources plc Steve Bywater Chief Executive  [phone] Graham Taggart Finance Director [phone]	Pelham Bell Pottinger Charles Vivian 44 (0)207 337 1538 Klara Kaczmarek [phone]
J.P. Morgan Cazenove Nominated Adviser Michael Wentworth-Stanley [phone]

GCM Resources plc
Tel: [phone], Fax: [phone]
[e-mail]; www.gcmplc.com

 

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