Direct Nickel and Mambare upd

RNS Number : 0803A

Regency Mines PLC

26 January 2011

 



Regency Mines PLC

('Regency', 'Regency Mines' or the 'Company')

Completion of Direct Nickel Pty Ltd investment, Issue of Equity and Holdings in Company

Update on Mambare drilling programme

26 January 2011

Completion of Direct Nickel Pty Ltd ("DNi") investment

Further to the joint venture subscription announcement made on 30 November 2010, Regency Mines, the mining exploration and mineral investment company with interests in nickel and other minerals in Western Australia, Queensland, Papua New Guinea and Pakistan, has now subscribed for an additional 519,931 new shares in DNi for a consideration of AUD3,000,000 (approximately £1,872,000) settled by the issue of 31,693,410 new ordinary shares of 0.1p in the Company ("Ordinary Shares").  This subscription brings Regency's total holding in DNi to 1,039,861 shares, representing approximately 7.31% of DNi's enlarged issued share capital, acquired at a total cost of AUD 6,000,000 (approximately £3,724,392), on the same pre-money basis as an investment by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation ("CSIRO"), Australia's national science agency, in June 2010.  DNi is now interested in 58,534,524 Ordinary Shares, representing approximately 10.16% of Regency's enlarged issued share capital.

Application has been made for the 31,693,410 new Ordinary Shares, which rank pari passu with the Company's existing issued ordinary shares, to be admitted to trading on AIM.  It is expected that admission will become effective and that trading will commence on 1 February 2011.  Following the issue of the new Ordinary Shares the Company's enlarged issued ordinary share capital will be 576,230,151 Ordinary Shares.

Update on Mambare drilling programme

Drilling at the joint venture Mambare lateritic nickel/cobalt project in Papua New Guinea is anticipated to start in April 2011 and end in the third quarter of 2011. It will initially comprise 220 holes for a total of approximately 4,000m. The objective of this drilling is to define and upgrade to JORC Resource category parts of the area drilled in the 2008 campaign by infill drilling, and to conduct reconnaissance drilling to establish the potential of the higher plateau to the North.

For further information contact:

Regency Mines PLC                     Andrew Bell, Chairman                                   0207 402 4580

                                                     Sandra Spencer, Public and

                                                      Investor Relations                                          0207 402 4580

Nominated Adviser

Religare Capital Markets               Peter Trevelyan-Clark/Ben Jeynes                   020 7444 0800

Broker

Simple Investments Ltd                  Nick Emerson                                                 01483 413500

Updates on the Company's activities are regularly posted on its website www.regency-mines.com.

Note: DNi is a private company incorporated in Australia. Itis currently demonstrating a potentially revolutionary process with attractive economics for treating laterite nickel ores (the "Direct Nickel Process" or the "Process").

The Direct Nickel Process is a hydrometallurgical process for treating nickel laterites with unprecedented efficiency and environmental benefits. It is designed to operate with tank leaching at atmospheric pressure, and is the first to treat both limonite and saprolite ores with a single flowsheet. The Process recycles its novel reagents, offers high cobalt and nickel recoveries with short residence time, produces mixed hydroxide precipitates ("MHP") or sulphide concentrate, has substantially lower capital and operating costs than competing processes and is fully scalable.

 

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