Final Results

RNS Number : 5359R

Aurum Mining PLC

30 June 2015

 

News Release

30 June 2015

AURUM MINING PLC

("Aurum" or "the Company")

Final Results for the year ended 31 March 2015

Aurum Mining plc (AIM: AUR), the Spanish focused gold and tungsten explorer, is pleased to report its preliminary audited financial results for the year ended 31 March 2015.

The Company is pleased to announce that in accordance with AIM Rules 20 and 26, the Annual Report and Financial Statements for the year ended 31 March 2015 and the Notice of Annual General Meeting will be posted to shareholders shortly and will be available on the Company's website www.aurummining.net. The Annual General Meeting will be held at 12 noon on 6 August 2015 at the offices of the Company's solicitors, Wragge Lawrence Graham & Co LLP, 4 More London Riverside, London SE1 2AU.

Contacts:
Aurum Mining plc	www.aurummining.net
Sean Finlay	[phone]
WH Ireland Limited	Nominated Adviser & Broker
Mike Coe, Ed Allsopp	[phone]

Notes to Editors:

Aurum Mining is an AIM listed exploration and development company focused on its highly prospective portfolio of gold and tungsten assets in North West Spain.

Gold

Through its joint venture agreement with Ormonde Mining plc (AIM: ORM), Aurum currently has a 58% interest in the Pino de Oro project in Zamora Province and a 53% interest in the Peralonso and Cabeza projects in Salamanca Province.

Tungsten

Aurum's 20% owned Morille Tungsten project is located approximately 15km south west of Salamanca in North West Spain and covers an area of 5,796 hectares. The permit area is a 'brownfield' site with historical data indicating production from the site of high quality tungsten concentrates.

Review of Activities

The Company's 2014 Interim Results, which were published on 6 November 2014, outlined that the Board was in the process of transforming the Company and changing the Company's strategy and direction in response to the very challenging market conditions that continue to blight the junior natural resource sector. The announcement went on to say that the Board would be working closely in conjunction with the Company's major Shareholder to identify and complete a transformational deal that will enhance the future of the Company.

Since November, the evolution of the Company has continued and this has been evidenced by Board changes, a fundraise to put the Company on a sound financial footing and during this period the Board has looked at a number of potential opportunities for the Company. The key is to find a deal that will give the Company a sustainable and long-term future, freeing the Company from being a victim of the structural change occurring in the junior mining market.

Most significantly, in April 2015, the Company announced that David Williams, the Company's major shareholder with over 29% of the issued share capital of the Company had agreed to join the Board as Chairman. Not only has David been a highly supportive major Shareholder in recent years, he also has a huge amount of business experience, and this experience will be instrumental in helping the Company achieve its objectives.

Shareholders in AIM listed junior mining companies have faced a long period of falling valuations and increased dilution, and with no end in sight for the ongoing downturn, the Board feels that this change in strategy is unquestionably the right thing for the Company to do, and with David at the helm, the Company will continue to review and appraise opportunities that have the potential to help Aurum complete its transformation.

The Board is looking forward to keeping the market up to date with progress.

Gold projects

In tandem with the new strategic approach, the Company will be looking to drive value from the successful exploration work done on the gold projects to date. Aurum is working closely with its joint arrangement partner Ormonde Mining plc ("Ormonde") (AIM: ORM) to achieve this. There have been a number of discussions with interested parties during the period around structuring a deal for the gold projects and a number of these discussions are on-going. There is currently a very low level of activity taking place on the gold projects, and during this transitional period Aurum will not be funding the projects - this has led to a small dilution on its interest on the gold projects, albeit an immaterial dilution.

Morille tungsten project

Following the completion of the deal with Plymouth Minerals Limited ("Plymouth") (ASX:PLH) in which Plymouth became Aurum's partner on the Morille tungsten project, significant exploration work has been carried out on the project. The Board has been impressed by the energy and enthusiasm of Plymouth and the work done to date has yielded some very promising results. The Board looks forward to updating the market with further exploration updates in the near future.

Key financials

For the twelve months to 31 March 2105, the Company is reporting a loss of £317,000 compared to a loss of £530,000 for the same period in 2014.

During this period of transition, cash management and cost control have remained key priorities for the Company. Administrative costs have been materially reduced over recent months.

On 21 August 2014, the Company announced that it had raised £60,000 (before expenses) through a placing of 4,800,000 new Ordinary Shares.

On 15 April 2015 the Company announced that it had completed a subscription of 25,758,356 new Ordinary Shares to new and existing Shareholders at a price of 1 pence per share to raise approximately £257,500 before expenses.  

The funds raised are being used to fund working capital requirements to enable the business to advance its transformation.

Corporate

The Board would like to thank its Shareholders and advisers for their input during this transitional period.

To facilitate the transformation process and to reduce costs, the Company also announced various Directorate changes during the first half of 2015. In addition to David Williams being appointed to the Board as Chairman, Chris Eadie and Mark Jones have stepped down from the Board. Sean Finlay stepped down as Chairman on David's appointment but remains on the Board as a Non-Executive Director along with Haresh Kanabar who also remains on the Board as a Non-Executive Director.

Chris Eadie continues to assist the Company as a consultant on a part-time basis and in order to keep operating costs to a minimum, David Williams has agreed to take no salary until a transformational deal is completed.

Qualified Person

Sean Finlay, Professional Geologist, Chartered Engineer, Non-Executive Director of Aurum Mining plc, and a qualified person as defined in the Guidance Note for Mining, Oil and Gas Companies, June 2009, of the London Stock Exchange, has reviewed and approved the technical information contained in this report.

On behalf of the Board

David Williams                                          

Chairman                                              

30 June 2015

STATEMENT OF PROFIT AND LOSS AND OTHER COMPREHENSIVE INCOME

year ended 31 march 2015

		2015	2014
	Notes	£'000	£'000
Impairment charge		(27)	-
Administrative expenses		(290)	(479)
Operating loss		(317)	(479)
Finance income		-	1
Loss for the year before taxation		(317)	(478)
Taxation		-	-
Loss for the year from continuing operations		(317)	(478)
Loss for the year from discontinued operations, net of tax		-	(52)
Loss and total comprehensive loss for the year		(317)	(530)
Loss and total comprehensive loss per share expressed in pence per share
From continuing operations
Basic and Diluted	2	(0.22)p	(0.34)p
From discontinued operations
Basic and Diluted	2	-	(0.03)p
Total operations
Basic and Diluted	2	(0.22)p	(0.37)p

Statement of financial position

as at 31 march 2015

Company number: 05059457		2015	2014
		£'000	£'000
Assets
Non-current assets
Intangible assets		899	899
Investments		79	64
Amounts owed by subsidiaries		-	-
Total non-current assets		978	963
Current assets
Receivables		13	62
Cash and cash equivalents		106	214
Total current assets		119	276
Total assets		1,097	1,239
Liabilities
Current liabilities
Trade and other payables		89	113
Total current liabilities		89	113
Total liabilities		89	113
Net  assets		1,008	1,126
Capital and reserves attributable to the equity holders of the company
Share capital		1,461	1,413
Shares to be issued		140	-
Share premium		11,596	11,585
Retained deficit		(12,189)	(11,872)
Total Equity		1,008	1,126

statement of Changes in equity

year ended 31 march 2015

	Share capital	Shares to be issued	Share premium	Retained deficit	Total Equity
	£'000	£'000	£'000	£'000	£'000
At 1 April 2013	1,413	-	11,585	(11,342)	1,656
Total comprehensive expense for the year	-	-	-	(530)	(530)
At 31 March 2014	1,413	-	11,585	(11,872)	1,126

Total comprehensive expense for the year	-	-	-	(317)	(317)
Issue of shares net of issue costs	48	-	11	-	59
Shares to be issued	-	140	-	-	140
At 31 March 2015	1,461	140	11,596	(12,189)	1,008

STATEMENT of cash flows

year ended 31 march 2015

	2015	2014
	£'000	£'000
Cash flows from operating activities
Loss for the year before tax	(317)	(530)
Adjustments for:
Impairment charge	27	-
Finance income	-	(1)
Disposal of subsidiaries	-	52
Exchange differences	-	1
Cash flow from operating activities before changes in working capital	(290)	(478)
Decrease in other receivables	7	13
(Decrease) / increase in trade and other payables	(24)	18
Net cash flow used in operating activities	(307)	(447)
Investing activities
Ormonde joint arrangement payments	-	(159)
Disposal of subsidiary net of cash	-	186
Increase in loans to subsidiaries	-	(60)
Net cash flow used in investing activities	-	(33)
Financing activities
Proceeds from issue of share capital	60	-
Expenses paid in connection with share issues	(1)	-
Cash received in respect of shares to be issued	140	-
Net cash flow from financing activities	199	-
Net decrease in cash and cash equivalents	(108)	(480)
Cash and cash equivalents at the beginning of the year	214	694
Effect of exchange rate changes on cash and cash equivalents
Cash and cash equivalents at the end of the year	106	214

NOTES

1.       Basis of preparation

The financial information set out above, which was approved by the Board on 29 June 2015 has been compiled in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards as adopted by the European Union ("IFRS"), but does not contain sufficient information to comply with IFRS. The Company expects to distribute its full financial statements that comply with IFRS shortly. The financial statements have been prepared on the historic cost basis and on a consistent basis with the accounting policies adopted in the prior year.

In the prior year, the Company sold 80% of its only wholly owned subsidiary, leaving the Company with no subsidiaries to consolidate. Consolidated accounts have therefore not been prepared in 2015, and accordingly, Company financial statements have been prepared for the current and the prior year.

The financial information set out above does not constitute the Company's statutory accounts for the year ended 31 March 2015 but is extracted from those accounts. The Company's statutory accounts for the year ended 31 March 2015 will be filed with the Registrar of Companies following the Company's annual general meeting. The independent auditors' report on those accounts was unqualified although an emphasis of matter was included in the accounts to draw attention to going concern. The financial statements have been prepared on a going concern basis.

Following a review of the Company's operations, its current financial position and cash flow forecasts, the Directors have formed a view that the Company will have sufficient financial resources available to it to continue in operational existence and meet its financial commitments as they arise in the next twelve months. The Directors have formed this view based on the amount of available cash within the Company, the Company's historical track record of raising funds from the AIM market, and the assets and investments the Company holds which could be made available for potential sale, should the need arise.

Based on the above the Directors have concluded that the Company can continue as a going concern for a period of at least twelve months from the date of signing these financial statements. Accordingly, the Directors continue to adopt the going concern basis for the preparation of these financial statements.   

The forecasts prepared by the Directors reflect the requirement for the Company to raise further funds over the next twelve months or to dispose of at least one of the assets or investments of the Company. Given that at the date of approval of the financial statements there are no legally binding agreements in place relating to either fundraising or to the sale of any of the Company's assets or investments, there can be no certainty relating to these potential causes of action, despite the Company's track record of raising funds or completing asset transactions. This position indicates the existence of a material uncertainty which may cast significant doubt about the Company's ability to continue as a going concern. The financial information / statements do not include the adjustments that would result if the Company was unable to continue as a going concern, which would principally relate to the impairment of intangible assets and investments.

No statement was included under section 498(2) or (3) of the Companies Act 2006. The Company's statutory accounts for the year ended 31 March 2014 have been filed with the Registrar of Companies. The independent auditors' report on those accounts was unqualified, but an emphasis of matter was included in the accounts to draw attention to going concern but did not contain any statement under section 498(2) or (3) of the Companies Act 2006.

2.       loss per share

Basic loss per share is calculated by dividing the loss attributable to the ordinary shareholders by the weighted average number of ordinary shares outstanding during the year.

For diluted loss per share, the weighted average number of shares in issue is adjusted to assume conversion of all the dilutive potential ordinary shares. The potential dilutive shares are anti-dilutive in 2014 and 2015 as the Company is loss making.

At the reporting date there were 4,450,000 (2014: 4,450,000) potentially dilutive ordinary shares. Dilutive potential ordinary shares include share options and warrants.

	2015	2014
	£'000	£'000
Net loss attributable to equity holders of the parent:
From continuing operations	(317)	(478)
From discontinued operations	-	(52)
From total operations	(317)	(530)

	2015	2014
	Number	Number
Weighted average number of shares:
Weighted average number of shares	145,296,862	141,291,930

 

END

 

 

FR EADKNASESEFF