Edenville shares rise as it brings forward restart at Rukwa

(Sharecast News) - Tanzania-focussed coal company Edenville Energy said on Wednesday that the restart of operations at the Rukwa Coal Project has been brought forward, and would now begin on 3 August.
The AIM-traded firm said the earlier restart followed a request, and subsequent prepayment, from an existing customer.

It noted that it has entered into a coal mining agreement and a loan agreement with its new strategic partner, Infrastructure Logistics Tanzania (ILTL), with both of those agreements subject to agreeing a start date for operations with ILTL.

That, in turn, was dictated by the ability of ILTL to relocate key operational personnel to site from international locations.

Edenville confirmed on Wednesday that the commencement date had now been agreed with ILTL as 1 September, and as a result, it would handle the initial restart in consultation with ILTL, before handing over operational control to ILTL at the start of September.

The company also said recently that it was intending to enter into a sales and marketing agreement with ILTL, to market coal to additional customers beyond its existing customer base, at an agreed rate per tonne of washed coal to be paid to Edenville, providing additional revenue streams.

In addition, ILTL would provide an anchor tenancy at Rukwa, via the initial purchase of a minimum of 3,000 tonnes of washed coal per month, before increasing to 5,000 tonnes per month over the following 12-month period.

Edenville said on Wednesday that, with the confirmation of the commencement date, it was expecting to finalise and enter into the sales and marketing agreement during August.

"I am delighted to confirm the restart of operations at Rukwa next week," said chief executive officer Alistair Muir.

"An existing customer is keen to take delivery of Rukwa coal and has now paid in advance to ensure delivery.

"Prior to the suspension of operations, the company had built a substantial order book for Rukwa coal."

Muir said that, following the restart, Edenville would look to refresh those outstanding orders, for a progressive build-up of production towards 10,000 tonnes per month.

"In addition, we are happy to have finalised a commencement date with ILTL for 1 September, which triggers our contract mining agreement and loan agreement.

"Ahead of then we expect to have also finalised the sales and marketing agreement, which will further boost our contracted sales figures."

At 1344 BST, shares in Edenville Energy were up 16.28% at 0.05p.