Phoenix Copper Raises £850,000

RNS Number : 3020T

Phoenix Copper Limited

13 November 2019

 

Phoenix Copper Limited / Ticker: PXC / Sector: Mining

13 November 2019

Phoenix Copper Limited (the "Company" or "Phoenix")

Equity subscription and Loan Note Placing to raise £850,000

Phoenix Copper Limited (AIM; PXC, OTCQX: PGMLF), the AIM quoted North American focused base and precious metals exploration and development company, is pleased to announce that it has raised a total of £850,000 (US$1,085,200) (before expenses) by way of a subscription for new ordinary shares of no par value each ("Ordinary Shares") and the issue of unsecured loan notes (the "Fundraising").

£340,000 (US$435,200) has been raised by way of a subscription for 2,000,000 new Ordinary Shares of no par value each at a price of 17 pence per share (the "New Shares"), and £510,000 (US$650,000) by way of an issue of 12 per cent unsecured loan notes, repayable on 31 January 2021. The Company will also grant a total of 650,000 warrants to the loan note holders which will be exercisable at 20 pence per share and valid until 31 July 2022 (the "Warrants"). The Warrants will not be listed.

The proceeds will be primarily used to develop the resources at the Company's Red Star silver deposit adjacent to the proposed Empire Mine open pit copper project in Idaho, USA as well as provide the Company with additional working capital.

Dennis Thomas, Chief Executive Officer, commented:

"I am delighted to report on the Fundraising, a portion of which has been raised via equity at a premium to our current market price, and the balance via non-dilutive debt financing. 

"These funds will be used to continue the sampling and drilling programme on the Red Star silver deposit and the polymetallic sulphide potential along strike towards four old underground mines worked in the first half of the twentieth century.  Assay results already returned from shallow drilling at Red Star include 62 ounces per tonne of silver equivalent over a 1.5 metre intersection and 26 ounces per tonne over a 9.2 metre intersection. Earlier this year we announced an NI 43-101 compliant maiden resource at Red Star of 1.6 million ounces of silver equivalent, returned from three drill holes.

"These funds will be used to expand the resources along strike and down dip. We plan to generate a mineable reserve on which to develop an underground mine and build a lead/silver flotation plant alongside the mine. This is the next phase in the development of what we firmly believe to be a world-class polymetallic mineralised ore system.

"The 21 October 2019 press release, an updated consultant's geological report and the Company's October 2019 presentation can be found on our web site at www.phoenixcopperlimited.com

"Additionally, it is pleasing to note that once again the Mining Journal World Risk Report, 2019, has ranked Idaho as the region for investment with the least perceived risk globally.

"I look forward to further reporting on our results as they become available."

Director Subscriptions

Certain Directors of the Company participated in the Fundraising, details of which are set out below:

Director	No of ordinary shares held as at the date of this announcement	No of New Shares to be subscribed	No of ordinary shares held immediately following the Subscription	% of enlarged share capital following the Subscription
Roger Turner	1,238,318	58,824	1,297,142	2.90
Dennis Thomas	1,196,048	58,824	1,254,872	2.80
Andre Cohen	292,809	-	292,809	0.65

Andre Cohen subscribed for US$50,000 in unsecured loan notes and will therefore also receive 50,000 warrants.

Related Party Transaction

Roger Turner, Dennis Thomas and Andre Cohen, as directors of the Company, are considered to be related parties to Phoenix, as defined in the AIM Rules for Companies (the "Related Parties").

Accordingly, Richard Wilkins, Marcus Edwards-Jones, Ryan McDermott and Jason Riley, as the independent directors, consider, having consulted with SP Angel Corporate Finance LLP ("SP Angel"), the Company's nominated adviser, that the terms and conditions of the above subscriptions are fair and reasonable insofar as the shareholders of the Company are concerned.

Details of the Fundraising

Application has been made for 2,000,000 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 8:00a.m. on 21 November 2019. 

Total Voting Rights

Following the issue of the New Shares, the issued share capital of the Company will consist of 44,784,881 Ordinary Shares. No shares will be held in treasury at the date of this announcement. The total current voting rights in the Company following the issue of the New Shares will therefore be 44,784,881.

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.

Contacts

For further information please visit www.phoenixcopperlimited.com or contact:

Phoenix Copper Limited	Dennis Thomas / Richard Wilkins	Tel: [phone] (Dennis) /  [phone] (Richard)
SP Angel (Nominated Adviser and Joint Broker)	David Hignell / Caroline Rowe	Tel: [phone]
Brandon Hill Capital (Joint Broker)	Jonathan Evans / Oliver Stansfield	Tel: [phone]
Medea Natural Resources Ltd (Financial Advisor)	Leonidas Howden / Fred White	Tel: [phone]
Blytheweigh (Financial PR)	Tim Blythe / Camilla Horsfall / Megan Ray	Tel: [phone]

Notes

Phoenix Copper Limited is a North American focused, base and precious metal explorer and developer, which is fast-tracking the historically-producing Empire Mine in Idaho, USA, back into production, and exploring for cobalt in Idaho.

Phoenix's primary operations are focused near Mackay, Idaho in the Alder Creek mining district. This district includes the historical Empire, Horseshoe, White Knob and Blue Bird Mines, past producers of copper, gold, silver, zinc, lead and tungsten from underground mines in the first half of the twentieth century. Additionally, the district includes Navarre Creek a Carlin-trend gold discovery which hosts a 6.1 km gold strike length within a 9.8 km² area.

Phoenix acquired an 80% interest in the historical Empire Mine property in 2017 and, based on a total of 320 drill holes, an oxide resource was completed in late 2017. A NI 43-101 compliant PEA (preliminary economic assessment) for an open pit heap leach solvent extraction and electrowinning ("SX-EW") mine was completed in April 2018. In 2018 a further 8,600 metres in 93 holes was completed to upgrade the oxide resources, provide samples for ongoing metallurgical test work, geotechnical and hydrological studies and condemnation drilling for the heap leach pad site, waste dump and plant site. An updated NI 43-101 compliant resource was completed in early May 2019.

However, Phoenix has increased the claim area from 818 acres at the time of its acquisition to 5,717 acres, mainly to the northwest and west, and in so doing has increased the potential for additional oxide and sulphide copper resources, as well as the potential for stand-alone gold and silver resources, along a strike length of approximately 2,500 metres towards the other brownfield mines of the Horseshoe, White Knob and Blue Bird Mines now within the property boundary.  In particular, a new discovery at Red Star, 330 metres north west of the Empire Mine proposed open pit, has revealed sulphide ore and from three shallow exploration drill holes a NI 43-101 compliant maiden resource of 1.6 million silver equivalent ounces was reported.

At Empire, it is estimated that less than 1% of the potential ore system has been explored to date and, accordingly, there is significant opportunity to increase the resource through phased exploration.

More details on the Company, its assets and its objectives can be found on PXC's website at www.phoenixcopperlimited.com.

	Details of the person discharging managerial responsibilities/person closely associated
a)	Name:	Andre Cohen
2.	Reason for the notification
a)	Position/status:	Non-Executive Director
b)	Initial notification/Amendment:	Initial notification
3.	Details of the issuer, emission allowance market participant, auction platform, auctioneer or auction monitor
a)	Name:	Phoenix Copper Ltd
b)	LEI:	2138006UWPZAB1A75680
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:	Shares of nil par value each ISIN: VGG7060R1139
b)	Nature of the transaction:	Warrants attached to loan note
c)	Price(s) and volume(s):	Price(s) Volume(s) 20 pence 50,000
d)	Aggregated information: Aggregated volume: Price:	Price(s) Volume(s)  20 pence 50,000
e)	Date of the transaction:	13 November 2019
f)	Place of the transaction:	Outside a trading venue

	Details of the person discharging managerial responsibilities/person closely associated
a)	Name:	Roger Turner
2.	Reason for the notification
a)	Position/status:	Chief Technical Officer and Non-Executive Director
b)	Initial notification/Amendment:	Initial notification
3.	Details of the issuer, emission allowance market participant, auction platform, auctioneer or auction monitor
a)	Name:	Phoenix Copper Ltd
b)	LEI:	2138006UWPZAB1A75680
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:	Shares of nil par value each ISIN: VGG7060R1139
b)	Nature of the transaction:	Subscription for cash
c)	Price(s) and volume(s):	Price(s) Volume(s)  17 pence 58,824
d)	Aggregated information: Aggregated volume: Price:	Price(s) Volume(s)  17 pence 58,824
e)	Date of the transaction:	13 November 2019
f)	Place of the transaction:	Outside a trading venue

	Details of the person discharging managerial responsibilities/person closely associated
a)	Name:	Dennis Thomas
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:	Phoenix Copper Ltd
b)	LEI:	2138006UWPZAB1A75680
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:	Shares of nil par value each ISIN: VGG7060R1139
b)	Nature of the transaction:	Subscription for cash
c)	Price(s) and volume(s):	Price(s) Volume(s)  17 pence 58,824
d)	Aggregated information: Aggregated volume: Price:	Price(s) Volume(s)  17 pence 58,824
e)	Date of the transaction:	13 November 2019
f)	Place of the transaction:	Outside a trading venue

 

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