Altyngold Regulatory News (ALTN)

29 Mar 2005 07:00

Hambledon Mining PLC29 March 2005 HAMBLEDON MINING PLC £5m Fundraising Completed Issue of new equity Hambledon Mining Plc, an AIM-listed mining and exploration company developingprecious metal deposits in Kazakhstan, announces that, it has placed 62,500,000new ordinary shares of 0.1p at 8p per share raising gross funds of £5 million.The funds raised will be used for the development of the Sekisovskoye/Tserkovkacomplex which is currently estimated to contain 2.8 million ounces of gold. The funds, together with a small amount of bank finance, will be used tocommence mining from the open pit area of Sekisovskoye, construct a treatmentplant and to explore the newly acquired Tserkovka licence area that covers 29square kilometres, adjacent to Sekisovskoye. The open pit project accounts forless than 10% of the estimated resource. The feasibility study into the development of the much larger underground mineis continuing, and a further announcement is expected to be made in June 2005. Application has been made for the admission of 62,500,000 new ordinary shares totrading on the AIM market. The new ordinary shares will rank pari passu with theexisting ordinary shares of the Company and dealings in the new ordinary sharesare expected to commence on 1st April 2005. Nicholas Bridgen, Chief Executive of Hambledon Mining plc, commented: "These funds will enable us to start work on developing what is proving to be amuch bigger resource than originally thought. We expect to be in production inthe first half of 2006." "We plan to start drilling the newly acquired Tserkovka territory, whichcontains several extensions of the Sekisovskoye mineralisation, in April and weexpect to be able to report the initial results in the second half of the year.Once the programme is completed we should begin to demonstrate the enormouspotential of the whole complex." "With the additional funding we can now move forward and develop Hambledon intoa significant gold producing company." 29th March 2005 ENQUIRIES: Hambledon Mining Plc Tel: +44 870 111 8778Nicholas Bridgen, Chief Executive or + 7 300 733 8915 Bankside Consultants Tel: 0207 444 4140Michael Spriggs / Michael Padley About Hambledon Mining Plc Hambledon Mining plc is an AIM listed mining and exploration company developingprecious metal deposits in Kazakhstan. It holds the rights to the Sekisovskoyegold and silver deposit, on which the feasibility study is at an advanced stage,and to the adjacent Tserkovka deposit and exploration areas. Project Development Two significant factors identified have resulted in a change in the approach tothe development of the deposit. Originally, it was believed that the open pitand underground ores from Sekisovskoye would be developed simultaneously, withthe open pit material being only a short-term stopgap whilst the underground orewas developed. Since then, the Company has announced, in November 2004, theacquisition of the 29 square kilometre area surrounding Sekisovskoye known asTserkovka. This contained several significant extensions of the Sekisovskoyemineralisation. In January, the Company announced its 2004 drilling results,which were excellent and led to a plan to fast-track the development of the openpit project on a stand-alone basis and on March 9th it was confirmed that thiswas to go ahead. The open pit is a profitable, low risk, way of starting the project, but alsoallows the Company to take the time to develop a coordinated plan for the wholeSekisovskoye/Tserkovka complex whilst benefiting from the cash flow andexperience that open pit production will bring. ENDS This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange