£1.5m Placing with Exercise of Management Options

RNS Number : 9003U

Strategic Minerals PLC

30 October 2017

 

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.

30 October 2017

Strategic Minerals plc

("Strategic Minerals" or the "Company")

Oversubscribed Placing of £1.5m with Exercise of Management Options

Strategic Minerals plc (AIM: SML; USOTC: SMCDY), the diversified mineral development and production company, announces that the Company has placed 66,666,667 new ordinary shares of 0.1p each in the Company ("Ordinary Shares") at a placing price of 2.25p per share (the "Placing").  Two employees of the Company (CFO, Julien McInally and President of SMG, Clovis Hooper) have exercised an aggregate of 36,000,000 vested share options at a price of 1 pence per new Ordinary Share, which were then placed on their behalf by the Company.  Accordingly, the Company has raised a total of £1,050,000 before expenses. This placing is in line with the Company's strategy of acquiring and developing mineral and metal projects that the Directors expect to have significant value upside over the next 3 to 5 years.

Key Highlights

·     Placing significantly oversubscribed and increased from initial £500,000 to £1,500,000 -  evidencing strong investor demand and support 

·     The proceeds of the Placing, which is expected to provide the Company a net total of approximately £1,015,000, will be utilised to secure and develop the Leigh Creek Copper Project in Australia, subject to due diligence (see announcement dated 16 October 2017)

·     A new institutional investor participated in the placement, in addition to the Company's largest existing shareholder, the Manners family

·     To satisfy the high level of investor demand, Mr McInally and Mr Hooper agreed to exercise share options to make more new Ordinary Shares available, whilst also eliminating an element of potential share overhang

·     All Directors of the Board elected to retain existing share options

·     Placing completed at more than five times the price of the Company's last fundraising on 2 November 2016

Managing Director of Strategic Minerals, Mr John Peters, commented:  "Once again we are delighted with the market's response to our approach for equity.  In concluding the placement, we have been able to meet the Board's major objectives for the issue of sourcing a key institutional investor for our register, removal of a potential share overhang and importantly funding for the acquisition and development our new Leigh Creek Copper project in Australia, which demonstrates near term production and cash flow generation potential.

Despite having significant cash balances, the Board took the view that it should fund the Leigh Creek Copper project in anticipation of a successful completion to the due diligence currently underway. The Board considers that Leigh Creek Copper project has the potential to become a dominant project amongst our suite of highly prospective projects and takes this vote of confidence from the market as a sign of the Company's continued upward trajectory. The current funding also keeps the Company in a strong, flexible position with respect to other projects and drilling programmes currently under consideration."

The Placing has been undertaken within the Company's existing share authorities and is conditional only on admission of the Placing Shares to trading on AIM ("Admission").  Application has been made for the Placing Shares, to be admitted to trading on AIM.  It is expected that Admission will become effective and dealings will commence on or around 3 November 2017.

As a result of strong investor demand, the issue was significantly oversubscribed, and the Directors took the view that, given the size of the oversubscription, the Company should upscale the issue to provide investors a meaningful allocation. The use of Management options to satiate some of this demand has ensured minimal dilution and removed any market sales pressure that may have been associated with Management exercising their options in the future.  While Directors were afforded the opportunity to exercise their vested options, all declined reflecting their views on the potential future Company share price and their desire to be long-term holders.

Total Voting Rights

Following the issue of the Placing Shares and the exercise of Management Options, upon Admission the Company's issued share capital will consist of 1,322,492,227 Ordinary Shares, with one voting right per share. Strategic Minerals does not hold any ordinary shares in treasury. Therefore, the total number of Ordinary Shares and voting rights in the Company will be 1,322,492,227.  Shareholders may use this figure as the denominator for the calculations by which they will determine if they are required to notify their interest in, or a change to their interest in, the share capital of the Company.

The major shareholder in the Company, the Manners family, participated in the placement and as a result will hold, on admission, 59,389,783 shares in the Company representing 4.5% of the issued capital post admission and option exercise.

Market Abuse Regulation (MAR) Disclosure

NOTIFICATION AND PUBLIC DISCLOSURE OF TRANSACTIONS BY PERSONS DISCHARGING MANAGERIAL RESPONSIBILITIES AND PERSONS CLOSELY ASSOCIATED WITH THEM:

1.	Details of the person discharging managerial responsibilities/person closely associated
a)	Name:	Mr. Julien McInally
2.	Reason for the notification
a)	Position/status:	CFO
b)	Initial notification/Amendment:	Initial notification
3.	Details of the issuer, emission allowance market participant, auction platform, auctioneer or auction monitor
a)	Name:	Strategic Minerals plc
b)	LEI:	213800DICA5NPVOJT776
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:	Ordinary shares of 0.1p each GB00B4W8PD74
b)	Nature of the transaction:	Exercise of options over ordinary shares
c)	Price(s) and volume(s):	Price(s) Volume(s) 0.01 pence 24,000,000
d)	Aggregated information: Aggregated volume: Price:	Single transaction as in 4 c) above Price(s) Volume(s) 0.01 pence 24,000,000
e)	Date of the transaction:	30 October 2017
f)	Place of the transaction:	London Stock Exchange, AIM (XLON)

1.	Details of the person discharging managerial responsibilities/person closely associated
a)	Name:	Mr. Clovis Hooper
2.	Reason for the notification
a)	Position/status:	President of Southern Minerals Group LLC
b)	Initial notification/Amendment:	Initial notification
3.	Details of the issuer, emission allowance market participant, auction platform, auctioneer or auction monitor
a)	Name:	Strategic Minerals plc
b)	LEI:	213800DICA5NPVOJT776
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:	Ordinary shares of 0.1p each GB00B4W8PD74
b)	Nature of the transaction:	Exercise of options over ordinary shares
c)	Price(s) and volume(s):	Price(s) Volume(s) 0.01 pence 12,000,000
d)	Aggregated information: Aggregated volume: Price:	Single transaction as in 4 c) above Price(s) Volume(s) 0.01 pence 12,000,000
e)	Date of the transaction:	30 October 2017
f)	Place of the transaction:	London Stock Exchange, AIM (XLON)

For further information, please contact:

Strategic Minerals plc		[phone]
John Peters
Managing Director
www.strategicminerals.net
Follow Strategic Minerals on:
Vox Markets:	https://www.voxmarkets.co.uk/company/SML/
Twitter:	@SML_Minerals
LinkedIn:	https://www.linkedin.com/company/strategic-minerals-plc
Facebook:	https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=strategic%20minerals%20plc
SP Angel Corporate Finance LLP		[phone]
Nominated Adviser and Joint Broker
Ewan Leggat
Optiva Securities Limited		[phone]
Joint Broker
Graeme Dickson
Yellow Jersey PR		[phone]
Financial PR
Charles Goodwin
Joe Burgess

Notes to Editors

Strategic Minerals Plc is an AIM-quoted, diversified mineral development and production company with projects in the United States of America, the UK and Australia. The Company is focused on acquiring and developing cash generative, high quality projects which meet local market demand for commodities and utilising this cash flow to undertake value added exploration. 

In September 2011, Strategic Minerals purchased its first cash-generating asset; the Cobre magnetite tailings dam project in New Mexico, USA which it brought into production in 2012 and which continues to provide a revenue stream for the Company. The portfolio was expanded in January 2016 with the acquisition of shares in Central Australian Rare Earths Pty Ltd, which holds tenements in Western Australia and the Northern Territory that are prospective for cobalt, gold, nickel sulphides and rare earth elements. The Company has since acquired all shares in Central Australian Rare Earths Pty Ltd. In May 2016, an additional exploration asset was acquired when the Company entered into an agreement with New Age Exploration Limited to acquire up to 50% of the Redmoor Tin/Tungsten project in Cornwall, UK. This 50% acquisition has now been completed and drilling at the project has commenced. The Company is also currently in due diligence in relation to the acquisition of the Leigh Creek Copper Mine situated in the copper rich belt of South Australia.

 

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