Award

Kenmare Resources PLC 10 March 2005 KENMARE RESOURCES PLC Kenmare Resources wins second international Deal of the Year award Thursday, 10 March 2005. Kenmare Resources' work in developing its US$450 million Moma Titanium Minerals project in Mozambique has won a Deal of the Year 2004 Award at the Project Finance magazine awards announced in London last night. This is the second international award Kenmare has won in recent months, and follows the Mine Finance Award for 2004 from the Mining Journal. Awarded the African Mining Deal of the Year, Kenmare's investment represents the biggest structured finance package ever put together for a development by a non-major mining company. The deal comprised a US$269 million loan agreement accompanied by the raising of US$97 million in equity. Kenmare's Moma financing received the award because of the highly complex nature of the deal. This complexity was created by: the number of lenders, the involvement of export credit agencies, the location of the project in Mozambique, the fact that titanium minerals aren't a hedged commodity and hence market risk cannot be hedged, and finally, Kenmare's size related to the size of the transaction. Speaking at the Awards Kenmare Resources Managing Director Michael Carvill said 'We are really pleased that this project has been recognised by the broader project finance community. The financing and loan agreements put in place in mid-2004 represented the culmination of years of work. Working on a non-traded commodity like Titanium Minerals made it particularly challenging as banks cannot hedge risk by selling forward. We were particularly pleased with our equity raising which was effectively 1:1 given that our market cap at the time was in the region of US$100 million'. Kenmare worked with NM Rothschild on this deal and were nominated for the award by their international lenders, KfW, African Development Bank, FMO, Absa, the European Investment Bank and Emerging African Infrastructure Fund. Kenmare began construction of the Moma mine in October 2004 and is on track to begin production in late 2006. It is expected that the mine will produce more than 650,000 tonnes of Titanium Minerals annually. Sales contracts for more than 57% of the first five years of planned output have already been signed. Project Finance is an international monthly magazine providing news and analysis on project and infrastructure finance for sectors including telecoms, power, oil, gas, rail, property, PPPs and mining. For further information: Kenmare Resources Michael Carvill, Managing Director Tel: +353-1-671 0411 Mob: +353-87-6740110 Murray Consultants Elizabeth Headon Tel: +353-1-498 0300 Mob: +353 87 989 7234 Conduit PR Ltd Leesa Peters/Amanda Harris Tel:+44-207-618 8760 Mob: +44 781 215 9885 10 March, 2005 This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
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