Berkeley Mineral completes Zambia purchase

The delayed acquisition of a zinc asset in Zambia by Berkeley Mineral Resources (BMR) has finally gone through.The UK mining tailings processor saw its share price slump back in December when it announced a delay in its acquisition of the remaining stockpiles of lead and zinc tailings at the Kabwe Mine, Zambia, but Monday's announcement saw it briefly hit a 52-week high before gains were trimmed.The aggregate purchase price for Enviro Mining Limited (EML), the company that owns the Zambian assets, is $2.5m in cash plus either (at the seller's option), the issue of 80m shares in BMR (at an effective issue price of 6p per share) or a further cash payment of £4.8m or a combination of cash and shares. "BMR can now complete the verification of the leach plant dumps to JORC [Joint Ore Reserves Committee] standard, commission the beneficiation plant and proceed as soon as possible to commence supplying the lead and zinc which are currently in high and increasing demand on world markets," said BMR's chairman, Masoud Alikhani.- - - jh