Issue of Equity and Holdings in Company

RNS Number : 1949Y

SolGold PLC

01 March 2017

 

1 March 2017

SolGold Plc

("SolGold" or the "Company")

Issue of Equity

Holdings in Company

The Board of SolGold plc ("SolGold" or the "Company") wishes to advise of the issue and allotment of a further 240,000 fully paid ordinary shares of 1p each to Newcrest International Pty Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of ASX-listed Newcrest Mining Ltd (Newcrest), Australia's largest gold miner and block cave mining expert. 

The allotment is pursuant to "top-up rights" held by Newcrest under its Share Subscription Agreement, as outlined in detail in SolGold's market release of 30 August 2016.  The allotment was priced at 38.4p per share, based on a 10 day VWAP, in accordance with the terms of the agreement.

Application has been made to the London Stock Exchange and admission is expected on or around 7 March 2017.

Holdings in Company

In accordance with the Disclosure and Transparency Rules ("DTR"), SolGold Plc (the "Company") was informed by Newcrest Mining Limited that, in fulfilment of the obligations of Rule 5 of the DTR, and as a result of their recent subscription to shares with voting rights by its wholly-owned subsidiary Newcrest International Pty Ltd, it has acquired a further interest in 240,000 ordinary shares of 1 penny each in the capital of the Company, which together with their previously advised 142,996,661 ordinary shares in the Company, represents a total of 143,236,661 ordinary shares, and approximately 10% of the Company's issued share capital.

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The Company now has a total of 1,432,306,605 fully-paid ordinary shares, 33,975,884 options exercisable at 28p and 11,975,884 options exercisable at 14p.

By order of the Board

Karl Schlobohm

Company Secretary

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:

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

SolGold is a Brisbane, Australia based, AIM‐listed (SOLG) 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 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 Newmont trained porphyry 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, all undertaken at substantial premiums to previous raisings and SolGold has, at February 2017, approximately USD40 million in available cash to continue the exploration and development of its flagship Cascabel Project. 

Coincident with those capital raisings, Mr Scott Caldwell (CEO of TSX-listed Guyana Goldfields Inc) joined the SolGold Board on 9 September 2016.  Mr Caldwell is a mining engineer with over 30 years of experience building and operating gold and base metal mines worldwide, including USA, Canada, Russia, Zimbabwe, Chile and Indonesia and was in 2016 recognised as CEO of the year for South-American resource companies.

Cascabel, SolGold's 85% owned world class 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 11% of TSX‐V‐listed Cornerstone Capital Resources, which holds the remaining 15% of ENSA, the Ecuadorian registered company which holds 100% of the Cascabel concession.

The investment by Newcrest into 10% of SolGold and investment into SolGold by Guyana Goldfields, Maxit Capital and its clients, endorses Ecuador as a mining destination, the management team at SolGold, the dimension, size and scale of Alpala, the general prospectivity of Cascabel and its multiple targets.  The gold endowment, location, infrastructure, and logistics are all important competitive advantages offered by the project.

To date SolGold has expended approximately USD39m, completing geological mapping and soil sampling over 25km², along with an additional 9km² of Induced Polarisation and 14km² Magnetotelluric "Orion" surveys over the Alpala cluster and Aguinaga targets.  SolGold has to date completed approximately 29,000m of drilling and expended over USD 39M on the program, corporate costs and investments into Cornerstone.  This has been completed without lost time injury or environmental incident, employing a workforce of up to 176 Ecuadoreans workers and geoscientists and 6 expatriate Australian geoscientists. Intensive diamond drilling is planned for the next 12 months with multiple drill rigs.

Cascabel is characterised by fourteen (14) 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 only one of the 14 targets, being Alpala.

The Alpala deposit is open at depth and in the upper extensions, as well as to the north, north-east, south-east and south-west.  The mineralised zones at Alpala, and Moran some 700 m to the north, and Aguinaga some 2km north east, are closely modelled by magnetic signatures and currently encompass over 10Bt of magnetic rock, anticipated on the basis of a strong relationship between copper sulphides and magnetite, to be mineralised with copper and gold.

SolGold is focussing on extending the dimensions of Alpala before completing a resource statement and drill testing of the other key targets within the Cascabel concession at Alpala South East, Aguinaga, Trivino, Moran, Alpala Northwest, Hematite Hill, Cristal, Parambas, Carmen, Tandayama-America and Chinambicito.  The Company is planning further metallurgical testing and completion of a conceptual early stage mine and plant design and a scoping study for an economic development at Cascabel.  SolGold is investigating both high tonnage / low-medium grade open cut and underground block caving operations, and a high grade / low tonnage initial underground development.

Drill hole intercepts are calculated 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 0.89, determined using copper price of USD2.20/pound and gold price of USD1350/ounce.

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 additional promising porphyry copper gold targets elsewhere in the Country.  SolGold is negotiating external funding options which could provide the Company with the ability to have 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.  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, as yet undrilled, Kuma prospect on the island of Kuma exhibits surface geological 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, under the AIM code 'SOLG' and currently has a total of 1,432,306,605 ordinary shares issued, together with 33,975,884 options exercisable at 28p and 11,975,884 options exercisable at 14p.

CAUTIONARY NOTICE

The news release may contain certain statements and expressions of belief, expectation or opinion which are forward looking statements, and which relate, inter alia, to the Company's proposed strategy, plans and objectives or to the expectations or intentions of the Company's directors. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other important factors beyond the control of the Company that could cause the actual performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from such forward-looking statements. Accordingly, you should not rely on any forward-looking statements and save as required by the AIM Rules for Companies or by law, the Company does not accept any obligation to disseminate any updates or revisions to such forward-looking statements.

 

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