7 Nov 2013 07:00
Alecto Minerals plc / EPIC: ALO / Market: AIM / Sector: Exploration & Development
7 November 2013
Alecto Minerals plc ('Alecto' or 'the Company')
£1M Placing & Funding Arrangement
Alecto Minerals plc (AIM: ALO), the AIM quoted mining exploration company focusing on West and East Africa, is pleased to announce that it has raised £1,000,000, before expenses, through the issue of 100,000,000 new ordinary shares of 0.7p each ("Placing Shares") at 1p per share (the "Placing"). The net proceeds of the Placing will principally be used to conduct further exploration work through additional drilling with a particular focus on increasing the resource at the Company's flagship Kossanto Gold Project in Western Mali ('Kossanto').
The Kossanto project has a current Inferred resource of 107,000 ounces (2.35Mt @ 1.42 g/t) of gold. The resource at Kossanto was delineated from the Gourbassi East target, which is one of a number of prospective targets within the tenure. Two further advanced targets have also been identified, demonstrating the significant exploration upside potential at the project.
Application will be made for the Placing Shares to be admitted to trading on AIM and it is anticipated that dealings will commence on 14 November 2013 ('Admission'). On Admission, the Company will have 588,918,775 ordinary shares of 0.7p each in issue ("Ordinary Shares").
In addition to the Placing, the Company has also entered into an equity swap agreement (the "Equity SWAP") with YA Global Master SPV Ltd ('Yorkville') over 50,000,000 Ordinary Shares (the "Swap Shares"), which form part of the Placing Shares. Pursuant to the Equity SWAP, in return for a payment by the Company to Yorkville of £250,000 ('the Initial Escrowed Funds'), twelve monthly settlement payments in respect of such payment will be made by Yorkville to the Company, or by the Company to Yorkville, based on a formula related to the difference between the prevailing market price of the Company's Ordinary Shares in any month and a 'benchmark price' that is 10% above the Placing Price. Thus the net funds received by the Company in respect of the Swap Shares will be dependent on the future price performance of the Company's Ordinary Shares.
Following the issue of the Placing Shares and the Swap Shares, Yorkville will be interested in 50,000,000 Ordinary Shares in the Company, representing 8.49% of the issued share capital of the Company.
Commenting on the funding received, Mark Jones, CEO said "We are pleased to have secured this additional access to capital with new and existing investors, which follows the significant steps recently made in progressing the Company's operations, including the recently announced joint venture with Centamin plc for our gold properties in Ethiopia. This funding enables us to fully cover the costs of the initial field programme in both Mauritania and at our flagship gold Kossanto project in Mali including RAB drilling using our own equipment and RC and Core drilling to significantly increase the resource at our Goubassi prospect. We look forward to making further exploration updates as work progresses in West Africa and on field activity and results from our properties in Ethiopia where Centamin have agreed to invest up to $14m to acquire up to a 70% interest in the Wayu-Boda and Aysid-Metekel properties."
For further information, please visit www.alectominerals.com or contact:
Mark Jones Alecto Minerals plc Tel: 020 3137 8862
Jonathan Evans Fox-Davies Capital Ltd Tel: 020 3463 5000
Jon Belliss XCAP Securities plc Tel: 020 7101 7070
Elisabeth Cowell St Brides Media & Finance Ltd Tel: 020 7236 1177
Felicity Edwards St Brides Media & Finance Ltd Tel: 020 7236 1177