Placing

RNS Number : 1042E

URU Metals Limited

30 October 2015

 

URU Metals Limited / Index: AIM / Epic: URU / Sector: Natural Resources

30 October 2015

URU Metals Limited ("URU Metals" or "the Company")

Placing

URU Metals (AIM:URU), the  base metals and uranium explorer and development company, is pleased to announce that it has raised £400,000 from institutional and other investors through a placing of 100 million new Ordinary Shares at 0.4p per share ("Placing Shares") to progress its 100 per cent owned Zebediela Nickel Project in South Africa and for general working capital purposes ("the Placing").

The funds will be used to further the exploration programme involving drilling and metallurgy for the Zebediela Project.  Drilling is expected to start at the end of November 2015, results expected by the end of January 2016.

Commenting on the Placing, David Subotic, Chairman of URU Metals said: "I am absolutely delighted to be able to say that we can now fast track the proposed drilling at Zebediela".

Director and Senior Management participation in the Placing

David Subotic (Chairman) and John Zorbas (non-board CEO) have subscribed for Placing Shares as set out in the table below.

	No. of Placing Shares being subscribed for	Total Shareholding Interest	Percentage of Enlarged Issued Shares on Admission
David Subotic	5,000,000	10,350,000	3.1%
John Zorbas
-      direct	5,000,000	11,700,000	3.6%
-      indirect	-	70,382,453	21.4%

The participation of David Subotic in the Placing is a related party transaction under the AIM Rules for Companies. The sole independent director, Mr Jay Vieira, having consulted with the Company's nominated adviser, Northland Capital Partners Limited, considers that the terms of Mr Subotic's participation in the Placing are fair and reasonable so far as the shareholders of the Company are concerned.

Details of the Placing

The Placing Shares are credited as fully paid and rank pari passu with the existing issued Ordinary Shares. Application will be made for the Placing Shares to be admitted to trading on AIM, which is expected to be effective on 5 November 2015 ("Admission").

Total voting rights

Following Admission, the Company's enlarged issued share capital will comprise 328,960,379 Ordinary Shares. The Company holds zero shares in treasury. Therefore the total number of Ordinary Shares with voting rights is 328,960,379, which figure may 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 FCA's Disclosure and Transparency Rules.

Appointment of Joint Broker

SVS Securities Plc has been appointed Joint Broker with immediate effect.

Background information on the Zebediela Nickel Project

The Zebediela Nickel Project is located in the Limpopo Province of South Africa close to the platinum mining town of Mokopane, very close to existing rail, highway, and electrical power infrastructure.

The Zebediela Nickel Project is a large disseminated sulphide resource.  The NI 43-101-compliant Preliminary Economic Assessment ("PEA") led by the MSA Group outlined Indicated Resources of 485.4 million tones averaging 0.245% nickel, and additional Inferred Resources of 1,115.1 million tons of 0.248% nickel.  The Zebediela Project also contains significant iron minerals in the form of magnetite that is also being investigated as a potential by-product.

The PEA considered the mining and milling of only 500 million tons of mineralised material in an open pit mine approximately 1,700 m long by 880 m wide by 250 m deep.  The proposed mining rate is 20 million tons per annum using a contractor mining fleet.  The strip ratio was calculated to be 0.36:1.

Extensive work was conducted on the Zebediela deposit metallurgy indicating that 50% of the total contained nickel could be recovered into a high quality saleable nickel concentrate averaging 16% Ni.  Start-up capital expenditures including contingencies and working capital are estimated to be $650 million and sustaining capital is estimated at $58 million over the life of the mine.  Operating expenditures are estimated to be $3.35 per pound of recoverable nickel.

The PEA returns a pre-tax and pre-royalty net present value of $1,018 million, an internal rate of return of 25.7% and a 3.8 year payback period at an 8% discount rate using a nickel price of $8.50/lb and a ZAR/USD ratio of 8.1.  Annual cash flow is projected to be $203 million.

About URU Metals

URU Metals is a multi-commodity explorer and developer with a diverse portfolio that includes:

·     Zebediela Nickel Sulphide Project, South Africa

100% ownership of a nickel sulphide project located in the Limpopo Province of South Africa boasting non-JORC compliant Inferred and Indicated Resources estimate of 1.5Bt containing around 37Mt of nickel.  Zebediela is forecasted to be a lowest-quartile production asset with an NPV of US$317 million and a post-tax IRR of 18.6% (assuming a post-tax discount rate of 10%, nickel price of US$8.50/lb, production of 20,000 tonnes of nickel per year over a 25 year mine life, a total capex cost of US$708 million, and an opex cost of US$3.35/lb Ni).

·     Burgersfort Nickel Sulphide Project, South Africa

50% ownership of Burgersfort, located in the Mpumalanga Province of South Africa.  Previous exploration identified disseminated nickel targets and three deeper massive sulphide nickel targets.

·     The Närke Oil-Uranium Project, Sweden

100% interest in an oil shale asset located in the Alum Shale of Sweden. The project will involve the conversion of kerogen to oil and is one of the largest known uranium deposits worldwide.  The project has an exploration target of 1.47 billion tonnes potentially containing 303,000t of U₃O₈ and 525 million barrels of oil equivalent.

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

URU Metals Limited John Zorbas (Chief Executive Officer)	[phone]
Northland Capital Partners Limited (Nominated Adviser and Joint Broker) Edward Hutton / Matthew Johnson	+ 44 (0) 207 382 1100
Beaufort Securities Limited (Joint Broker) Andrew Gutmann	+ 44 (0) 207 382 8300
SVS Securities Plc (Joint Broker) Tom Curran	[phone]
St Brides Partners Ltd (Financial Public Relations) Lottie Brocklehurst	[phone]

 

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