Arc Minerals Regulatory News (ARCM)

16 December 2021

Arc Minerals Ltd 

('Arc' or the 'Company')

Result of Annual General Meeting

The Company is pleased to announce that all of the resolutions that were put to shareholders at the virtual Annual General Meeting held today were duly passed.

Nick von Schirnding, Executive Chairman of Arc, provided the following update to those in attendance at the virtual AGM:

"The Company's drilling activities centred on the Fwiji and Cheyeza East targets which as announced would comprise of deeper holes to better understand the stratigraphy and structure of the target areas. Some of these holes drilled went down to 500 metres in depth and as a result the drilling took longer than in previous years given the length of time to drill to this depth. The first hole drilled at Cheyeza East intersected massive and disseminated copper sulphide mineralisation and represented the most significant copper sulphide discovery since Arc's drilling campaign started at Cheyeza East and provides further support for the discovery of a sulphide copper occurrence at this target. Other holes drilled also intersected sulphide mineralisation, but the drilling campaign and certain operations have been delayed by the Company whilst certain legal cases were dealt with, such as the court ruling dated 8 November 2021 setting aside the ex-parte order in favour of Zamsort and Handa. Regarding the Cheyeza East oxide target, extensive test work has been underway, and the Company is assessing proprietary technology that has reportedly achieved high recovery levels and is being further assessed for its commercial viability.

Arc's high resolution airborne geophysical survey was completed in November, the raw data for which has been sent to the Company's consultant to be processed and interpreted, which will further refine the Company's targeting before restarting drilling, which will include not only Cheyeza East but also Muswema our No.1 target.

Arc is also pleased to confirm that it is in discussions with two major mining companies regarding potential commercial transactions. One of these discussions is at an advanced stage and, whilst the Board is optimistic about the potential for a transaction, there can be no guarantee that any transaction will be completed. The Company also has a clear strategy in place for the next series of drilling campaigns irrespective of whether a transaction with a major eventuates.

As mentioned above, the Company is currently involved in two sets of spurious legal cases in Zambia brought by a former founder shareholder in Zamsort Ltd ("Zamsort") and former Director of Arc, Mr Mumena Mushinge. The first set relates to a debt claim made by Terra Metals Ltd ("Terra Metals"), a company controlled by Mr Mushinge, against Zamsort, a subsidiary of the Company purchased from Terra Metals in 2018, in connection with a $5.8m capital raise by Zamsort in 2015 (prior to Arc becoming a shareholder of Zamsort). Arc considers that these cases are without any merit, as originally notified on 10 March 2021, and has launched a breach of warranties case in the UK High Court as well as defending the cases brought in Zambia. The second set of cases relates to the termination of a plant lease agreement by Zamsort in regard to Zambia Mineral Exchange Corporation Limited, a company also owned by Mr Mushinge, which has disputed the termination. The termination by Zamsort of the lease was in line with the provisions of the lease agreement.

Partly due to the impact of Covid as well as recent Zambian elections, there have been delays in the judicial system to hear the legal cases, which are likely to be heard and decided on in the first half of 2022. Attempts are underway to come to an agreement between the parties to avoid wasting more time and until such time the Company will continue to rigorously defend its rights. Our case is extremely strong and we have full confidence in the Zambian judicial system.

In conclusion, while the year has been a challenging one with time and effort being spent on two sets of legal cases - our fundamentals are strong. We have one of the most attractive exploration grounds in southern / central Africa and our drilling has confirmed significant mineralisation. While frustrating that our drilling efforts were delayed, we look forward to continuing our drilling at Cheyeza East and at Muswema. Our financial position remains strong with cash resources of US$3m and an expected Casa Mining settlement of US$1.5m which remains subject to the completion of a CA$5m fundraising by Rackla Metals Inc, approval by the TSX Venture Exchange and other customary conditions, as notified on 5 May 2021. While we'd very much like to elaborate on the status of our discussions with two major mining companies, as well as the status of the legal cases in Zambia, we are precluded from disclosing details at this time due to regulatory and legal considerations. We look forward to updating shareholders in due course on new developments in the Company through 2022."

Market Abuse Regulation (MAR) Disclosure

Certain information contained in this announcement would have been deemed inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of Regulation (EU) No 596/2014 until the release of this announcement.

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