Cancellation of trading on AIM

RNS Number : 6991L

SolGold PLC

21 July 2017

 

21 July 2017

SolGold plc

("SolGold" or the "Company")

Notification of proposed admission to the Main Market and cancellation of trading on AIM

The Board of SolGold today announces its intention to apply for admission to listing of its ordinary shares (the "Ordinary Shares") on the standard listing segment of the Official List of the UK Listing Authority (the "Official List") and admission to trading on  London Stock Exchange plc's (the "London Stock Exchange") main market (the "Main Market") for listed securities (together, "Admission").  Pursuant to Rule 41 of the AIM Rules for Companies, the Company hereby gives notice of the intended cancellation of trading of its Ordinary Shares on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange ("AIM")

The Board believes that a standard listing, together with its recent TSX listing,  will support the long-term strategy of the Company by providing the Company with a more appropriate platform for its growth and its market capitalisation, which as of the date of this announcement is in excess of £550 million.  In addition, the Board believes that Admission will raise the Company's global profile, increase its trading liquidity and provide the Company with a greater range of potential investors for its ordinary shares.

Admission will be through an introduction of the existing Ordinary Shares.  The Company will not be issuing new shares in conjunction with the proposed Admission or the publication of the related prospectus. It is expected that the Company will publish its prospectus in connection with Admission on or around 18 August 2017 and it is anticipated that the Ordinary Shares will be admitted to the Official List, commence trading on the Main Market and simultaneously trading will be cancelled on AIM at 8 am on 21 August 2017 (being at least 20 business days after this announcement), subject to the receipt of the necessary approvals from the UK Listing Authority and the London Stock Exchange.  The Company's shares will continue to be registered with their existing ISIN number GB00B0WD0R35 and SEDOL number B0WD0R3.  The Company's ticker symbol will continue to be SOLG.  The prospectus will, when issued, be made available on the Company's website at www.solgold.com.au 

The Company's existing shareholders should consult their own tax advisers as to the tax implications of the Company's proposed move to the Main Market.

Further announcements will be made in due course. 

CONTACTS

Mr Nicholas Mather	Tel: [phone]
SolGold Plc (Executive Director)	[phone]
[e-mail]
Mr Karl Schlobohm	Tel: [phone]
SolGold Plc (Company Secretary)
[e-mail]
Mr Ewan Leggat / Richard Morrison	Tel: [phone]
SP Angel Corporate Finance LLP (NOMAD and Broker)
[e-mail] / [e-mail]

Follow us on twitter @SolGold_plc

NOTES TO EDITORS

NOTES TO EDITORS

SolGold is a Brisbane, Australia based, dual AIM and TSX‐listed (SOLG on both exchanges) copper gold exploration and future development company with assets in Ecuador, Solomon Islands and Australia.  SolGold's primary objective is to discover and define world‐class copper‐gold deposits.  The Board and Management Team have substantial vested interests in the success of the Company as shareholders as well as strong track records in the areas of exploration, mine appraisal and development, investment, finance and law.  SolGold's experience is augmented by state of the art geophysical and modelling techniques and the guidance of porphyry copper and gold expert Dr Steve Garwin.

SolGold was shortlisted as a nominee for the Mining Journal Explorer Achievement Award for 2016. The Company announced USD54m in capital raisings in September 2016 involving Maxit Capital LP, Newcrest International Ltd and DGR Global Ltd, and a USD41.2m raising in June of 2017 largely from Newcrest International with USD1.2m raised from Ecuadorean investors.  All of these raisings were undertaken at substantial premiums to previous raisings, and SolGold currently has circa USD68 million in available cash to continue the exploration and development of its flagship Cascabel Project.

Mr Craig Jones joined the SolGold Board on 3 March 2017, nominated to the Board of SolGold by Newcrest Mining, now a 14.54% shareholder in SolGold.  Mr Jones is a Mechanical Engineer and is currently the Executive General Manager Wafi-Golpu (Newcrest-Harmony MMJV).  He has held various senior management and executive roles within the Newcrest Group, including General Manager Projects, General Manager Cadia Valley Operations, Executive General Manager Projects and Asset Management, Executive General Manager Australian and Indonesian Operations, Executive General Manager Australian Operations and Projects, and Executive General Manager Cadia and Morobe Mining Joint Venture.  Prior to joining Newcrest, Mr Jones worked for Rio Tinto.

Cascabel, SolGold's 85% owned "World Class" (Ref: Cautionary Notice) flagship copper‐gold porphyry project, is located in northern Ecuador on the under‐explored northern section of the richly endowed Andean Copper Belt.  SolGold owns 85% of Exploraciones Novomining S.A. ("ENSA") and approximately 8% of TSX‐V‐listed Cornerstone Capital Resources ("Cornerstone"), which holds the remaining 15% of ENSA, the Ecuadorian registered company which holds 100% of the Cascabel concession.  Subject to the terms of existing agreements, Cornerstone is debt financed by SolGold for its share of costs to completion of a Feasibility Study.

In particular, the investments by Newcrest for 14.54% of SolGold endorses Ecuador as an exploration and mining destination, the management team at SolGold, the dimension, size and scale of the growing Alpala deposit, and the prospectivity of Cascabel and its multiple targets.  The gold endowment, location, infrastructure, logistics are important competitive advantages offered by the project.

To date SolGold has completed geological mapping, soil sampling, rock saw channel sampling, geochemical and spectral alteration mapping over 25km², along with an additional 9km² of Induced Polarisation and 14km² Magnetotelluric "Orion" surveys over the Alpala cluster and Aguinaga targets.

SolGold has completed over 41,000m of drilling and expended over USD49M on the program, which includes corporate costs and investments into Cornerstone.  This has been accomplished with a workforce of up to 176 Ecuadorean workers and geoscientists, and 6 expatriate Australian geoscientists.  The results of 35 holes drilled (including re-drilled holes) and assayed to date have produced some of the greatest drill hole intercepts in porphyry copper-gold exploration history, as indicated by Hole 12 (CSD-16-012) returning 1560m grading 0.59% copper and 0.54 g/t gold including, 1044m grading 0.74% copper and 0.54 g/t gold.  The average grade of all metres drilled to date on the project currently stands at 0.32% copper and 0.27 g/t gold.  Intensive diamond drilling is planned for the next 12 months with 10 drill rigs expected to be operational by early 2018, targeting over 90,000m of drilling per annum.

Cascabel is characterised by fifteen (15) identified targets, "World Class" drilling intersections over 1km in length at potentially economic grades, and high copper and gold grades in richer sections, as well as logistic advantages in location, elevation, water supply, proximity to roads, port and power services; and a progressive legislative approach to resource development in Ecuador. 

To date, SolGold has drill tested 4 of the 15 targets, being Alpala Northwest, Alpala Central, Hematite Hill, and Alpala Southeast.  Currently drill testing of Alpala Northwest, Alpala Central and Alpala Southeast targets is underway, with drill testing of the Aguinaga target to commence in August 2017.

The Alpala deposit is open in multiple directions and the mineralised corridor marked for drill testing of the greater Alpala cluster occurs over a 2.2km strike length from Trivinio in the northwest to Cristal in the southeast.  The mineralised corridor is known to be prospective over approximately 700m width. 

High priority targets within the Alpala cluster, at Moran approximately 700m to the north, and at Aguinaga approximately 2.3km north east, are closely modelled by 3D MVI magnetic signatures that currently encompass over 10Bt of magnetic rock.  Based on a strong spatial and genetic relationship between copper sulphides and magnetite, this body of magnetic rock is considered to be highly prospective for significant copper and gold mineralisation, and requires drill testing.

SolGold is focussing on extending the dimensions of the Alpala deposit including Hematite Hill, Alpala South East, Cristal, Alpala Northwest and Trivinio before completing a resource estimate and drill testing of the other key targets within the Cascabel concession at Aguinaga, Tandayama-America, Alpala West, Carmen, Alpala East, Moran, Parambas, and Chinambicito.

The Company is currently planning further metallurgical testing and completion of an independent Pre-Feasibility Study at Cascabel.  SolGold is investigating both high tonnage open cut and underground block caving operations, as well as a high grade / low tonnage initial underground development towards the economic development of the copper gold deposit/s at Cascabel.

Drill hole intercepts have been updated to reflect current commodity prices, using a data aggregation method, defined by copper equivalent cut-off grades and reported with up to 10m internal dilution, excluding bridging to a single sample.  Copper equivalent grades are calculated using a gold conversion factor of 0.63, determined using an updated copper price of USD3.00/pound and an updated gold price of USD1300/ounce.  True widths of down hole intersections are estimated to be approximately 25-50%.

Following a comprehensive review of the geology and prospectivity of Ecuador, SolGold and its subsidiaries have also applied for additional exploration licences in Ecuador over a number of promising porphyry copper gold targets throughout the Country.  38 such concessions have been granted and announced to date.  SolGold is negotiating external funding options which will provide the Company with the ability to have some of these projects fully funded by a third party while focussing on Cascabel.

In Queensland, Australia the Company is evaluating the future exploration plans for the Mt Perry, Rannes and Normanby projects, with drill testing of the Normanby project planned for the coming quarter.  Joint venture agreements are being investigated for a joint venture partner to commit funds and carry out exploration to earn an interest in the tenements.

SolGold retains interests in its original theatre of operations, Solomon Islands in the South West Pacific, where the 100% owned, but as yet undrilled, Kuma prospect on the island of Guadalcanal exhibits surface lithocap characteristics which are traditionally indicative of a large metal rich copper gold intrusive porphyry system.  SolGold intends in the future to apply intellectual property and experience developed in Ecuador to target additional "World Class" copper gold porphyries at Kuma and other targets in Ecuador and Argentina.

SolGold is based in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.  The Company listed on London's AIM Market in 2006, and dual-listed onto the TSX in July 2017 (both exchanges using the ticker code: SOLG) and currently has on issue a total of 1,515,555,686 fully-paid ordinary shares, 31,795,884 options exercisable at 28p and 9,795,884 options exercisable at 14p.

 

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