pathfinder minerals plc
("the Company")
Issue of Equity
For the purposes of the Financial Services Authority's Disclosure and Transparency Rules, the Company announces that as at 1 March the total number of ordinary shares of 1p in issue is 811,500,563, with each share carrying the right to one vote.
The Company has no ordinary shares held in treasury. The total number of voting rights in the Company is therefore 811,500,563. This figure of 811,500,563 ordinary shares may therefore be used by shareholders in the Company as the denominator for the calculations by which they will determine if they are required to notify their interest in, or a change in their interest in, the share capital of the Company under the FSA's Disclosure and Transparency Rules.
Enquiries:
Pathfinder Minerals Plc
Nick Trew, Chief Executive
Tel. +44 (0)20 7920 2340 (via M: Communications)
Daniel Stewart & Company Plc
Oliver Rigby or James Thomas
Tel: +44 (0)20 7776 6550
M: Communications
Ben Simons or Maria Souvorov
Tel: +44 (0)20 7920 2340 /2327
Notes to Editors
Pathfinder Minerals, through a wholly owned subsidiary, has a 100% interest in two licences to mine heavy minerals sands, containing a potential titanium dioxide ore resource. The Naburi Licence and Moebase Licence, formerly owned by BHP Billiton, are over land located on and near the Indian Ocean coast of Mozambique. Historical reported mineral resources on the property are estimated at 2.02 billion tonnes with a 3.55% total heavy mineral content, which is equivalent to approximately 71.7 million tonnes of contained heavy minerals. Confirmatory drilling and metallurgical test work will be required to upgrade the classification of the mineral resources in accordance with current AusIMM, SAMREC or CIM resource classification codes.
Exploration work conducted on the licences from the mid-1980s through to 2002 has identified significant mineralisation. Bulk sampling and metallurgical test work conducted in support of prefeasibility and feasibility studies in the mid-1990s indicates that valuable heavy minerals can be recovered using conventional dredge mining, wet concentration and dry mineral separation processes.
The Company intends to undertake a feasibility study on the licences.
Heavy Minerals Sands
The more valuable components of a heavy mineral sands deposit include the titanium oxide minerals ilmenite, rutile and zircon. Ilmenite and rutile are used to produce titanium dioxide pigment used in the production of paint, paper, plastic, textiles, rubber and pharmaceutical products. Zircons are commercially mined for the metal zirconium and are used for abrasive and insulating purposes.