£1,500,000 Loan Facility Agreed

RNS Number : 8000Q

Kibo Mining Plc

02 March 2016

 

Kibo Mining Plc (Incorporated in Ireland)

(Registration Number: 451931)

(External registration number: 2011/007371/10)

Share code on the JSE Limited: KBO Share code on the AIM: KIBO

ISIN:IE00B97C0C31

("Kibo" or "the Company")

 

  02 March 2016

Kibo Mining Agrees Unsecured, Interest Free  Loan Facility of  £1, 500,000 Ensuring Adequate Funding Security In The Medium Term

Kibo Mining plc ("Kibo" or the "Company") (AIM: KIBO; AltX: KBO), the Tanzania focused mineral exploration and development Company is pleased to announce it has today entered into a loan facility (the "Facility") with Sanderson Capital Partners Limited ("Sanderson") for an amount up to £1,500,000 to be utilised by Kibo, at its sole discretion and election, for contingency funding, during the term of the Facility.

The Facility comprises the following:

·    An unsecured, interest free, fixed term loan due for repayment no later than 31 August 2016;

·    The loan can be drawn down in five £300,000 tranches no less than 40 days apart, with tranches three, four and five subject to successfully achieving certain specified project deliverables;

·    A fee of up 7 million Ordinary Shares in Kibo, capped by a maximum value of £350,000 associated with the arrangement and implementation of the Facility, will become payable if the Facility is utilised (the "Arrangement Fee");

·    The Arrangement Fee will be payable on the day the Facility is activated by Kibo;

·    In addition to the Arrangement Fee, a drawdown fee of £51,000 is payable to Sanderson in respect of each of the five £300,000 drawdown tranches;

·    Each drawdown fee will be payable in 1,186,046 Ordinary Shares in Kibo, subject to certain share price limits, on or before any particular drawdown date;

·    At the completion of the term of the loan, Kibo will have the option to settle the first £750,000 of the monies borrowed in either cash or Ordinary Shares in Kibo;

·    Should Kibo be unable to settle the second £750,000 of monies borrowed in cash it will have the option to settle this portion in Ordinary Shares in Kibo; and

·    In the event where the loan or any part thereof is settled in shares, the price at which such Ordinary Shares will be issued will be the 30 day VWAP for Kibo Ordinary Shares that traded during the 30 days preceding the settlement date. 

Additional to the fees payable to Sanderson in the event of utilising the Facility, Kibo is also obliged to pay a 5% corporate advisory fee to the Company's broker, Beaufort Securities Limited. The amount off £75,000 will be payable in Ordinary Shares in Kibo at the same time as the Arrangement Fee becomes due and will be issued at a price equal to the prevailing market price for Kibo Ordinary Shares.

Louis Coetzee, CEO of Kibo Mining commented today: "The MCPP is progressing at an expeditious pace. We are now only a few months away from expected completion of the Definitive Feasibility Studies for both the mining and power elements of the MCPP and at an advanced stage with the MCPP commercial arrangements and agreements. Notably, Kibo has also retained 100% ownership of the MCPP and has cultivated growing support and interest from the Tanzanian Government and other strategic stakeholders.  

Sustaining and maintaining this momentum is crucial to successfully expediting the completion of the final MCPP development phase, with funding certainty and stability over the next six months a key factor in this.  To this end, Kibo has secured a funding instrument for the Company that:

·    Provides adequate funding security in the medium term while retaining the flexibility to freely investigate additional or substitute funding alternatives;

·    Is considered to be competitive vis a vis other funding options currently on offer and accessible to Kibo, given the prevailing market conditions;

·    Provides the transparency and flexibility for the Company to effectively manage its cash position upon repayment of the Loan facility; and

·    Does not incorporate hidden, cumulative or progressive cost elements.

With this funding in place, we can focus our attention on an exciting six months ahead to prove and deliver the MCPP as a project with solid, robust bankable credentials."

Contacts

Louis Coetzee	[phone]	Kibo Mining plc	Chief Executive Officer
Andreas Lianos	[phone]	River Group	Corporate Adviser and Designated Adviser on JSE
Jon Belliss	[phone]	Beaufort Securities Limited	Broker
Oliver Morse	[phone]	RFC Ambrian Limited	Nominated Adviser on AIM
Daniel Thöle / Anna Legge	[phone]	Bell Pottinger	Investor and Media Relations

Kibo Mining - Notes to editors

Kibo Mining is listed on the AIM market in London and the AltX in Johannesburg. The Company is focused on exploration and development of mineral projects in Tanzania, and controls one of Tanzania's largest mineral right portfolios. Tanzania provides a secure and stable operating environment for the mineral resource industry and Kibo Mining therein.

Kibo Mining holds a thermal coal deposit at Rukwa, which has a significant JORC compliant defined resource (See Table 1 below), and is developing a 250-350MW mouth-of-mine thermal power station, the Mbeya Coal to Power Project ("MCPP"), previously called Rukwa Coal to Power Project ("RCPP"), with an established management team that includes Standard Bank as Financial Advisor.  Kibo is undertaking a Coal Mining Definitive Feasibility Study and a Power Pre-Feasibility Study for the Mbeya project with an integrated Coal-Power interim study report to be released in the near term. On 20^th April 2015, Kibo signed a Joint Development Agreement for the completion of the Definitive Feasibility Studies and development of the MCPP with China based EPC contractor SEPCO III.

The Company also has extensive gold focused interests including Lake Victoria Goldfields and Morogoro projects. At Lake Victoria, the Company has projects with a 550,000oz JORC compliant gold Mineral Resource at Imweru Project (See Table 2 below) and a 168,000oz NI 43-101 compliant gold Mineral Resource at the Lubando Project (See Table 3 below) in which the Company holds a 90% attributable interest. The Company is currently undertaking a Definitive Feasibility Study on its Imweru Project.

Kibo also holds the Haneti Project on which the latest technical report confirms prospectivity for nickel, PGMs, gold and strategic metals including lithium. 

Kibo Mining further holds the Pinewood (coal & uranium) project where the company has entered into a 50/50 Exploration Joint Venture with Metal Tiger plc.

Finally, the Company also holds the Morogoro (gold) project where the company has also entered into a 50/50 Exploration Joint Venture with Metal Tiger plc.

The Company's projects are located in the established and gold prolific Lake Victoria Goldfields, the emerging goldfields of eastern Tanzania and the Mtwara Corridor in southern Tanzania where the Government has prioritised infrastructural development attracting significant recent investment in coal and uranium. The Company has a positive working relationship with the Tanzanian government at local, regional and national levels and works hard to maintain positive relationships with all communities where company interests are held.  The Company recognises the potential to enhance the quality of life and opportunity for Tanzanian citizens through careful development of its projects.

Updates on the Company's activities are regularly posted on its website www.kibomining.com  

Johannesburg

02 March 2016

Corporate and Designated Adviser

River Group

 

END

 

 

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