Atalaya Mining Regulatory News (ATYM)

4 Dec 2009 15:33



AIM: EMED 4 December 2009

EMED Mining raises £3.27 million through issue of New Ordinary Shares 

EMED Mining Public Limited ("EMED Mining" or the "Company") is pleased to announce it has today conditionally placed 27,727,273 new ordinary shares of 0.25 pence each par value ("Placing Shares") at an issue price of 11 pence each ("Placing Price") with existing and new shareholders (the "Placing"). Fox-Davies Capital Limited ("Fox-Davies") acted as broker to the Placing which, together with concurrent options exercise by Directors, raised £3.27 million gross. The Placing Shares will be issued and admitted to AIM ("Admission") subject, inter alia, to shareholders passing appropriate resolutions at an Extraordinary General Meeting ("EGM") to be called to approve the capital raising. The EGM is scheduled to be held at the Company's registered office at 1 Lampousas Street, 1095 Nicosia, Cyprus at 10.00 a.m. on 23 December 2009.

The Board and Management have also committed £220,000 via the exercise of options.. The net proceeds from the Placing and exercise of options of £3.05 million, will be used by the Company to fund the permitting process in relation to the Proyecto de Rio Tinto project in Andalucía, Spain (the "Rio Tinto Mine") in accordance with the Spanish regulatory authorities. The funds raised will also go towards funding the mine-development planning and the exploration programme the Company is carrying out in Slovakia and for general working capital purposes.

Aristidis (Harry) Anagnostaras-Adams and Gordon Toll, both Directors of the Company have each agreed to exercise options over 1,000,000 Ordinary Shares and 2,000,000 Ordinary Shares, respectively. Such options are being exercised at prices ranging from 4.13 pence per Ordinary Share to 8 pence per Ordinary Share and the total proceeds of such option exercise will amount to £220,650. Following the exercise of such options Aristidis (Harry) Anagnostaras-Adams will be beneficially interested in  5,800,000 Ordinary Shares and Gordon Toll will be beneficially interested in 6,667,000 Ordinary Shares. John Leach, the Company's Finance Director, has agreed to subscribe for 250,000 Placing Shares under the Placing. Following the Placing John Leach will be beneficially interested in 1,460,000 Ordinary Shares.

Following the issue of the Placing Shares and exercise of options, the Company will have a total of 340,333,699 ordinary shares and 57,486,359 options in issue.

The Company will tomorrow despatch a circular to shareholders which will contain the notice of EGM and copies will be available free of charge at the Company's registered office at 1 Lampousas Street, 1095 Nicosia, Cyprus during normal business hours on any weekday until 23 December 2009 (Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays excepted) and from www.emed­-mining.com.

Speaking at the St Barbara's Day (the patron Saint of Miners) festivities in Rio Tinto, Mr Harry Anagnostaras-Adams, Managing Director of EMED Mining said: 

"This financing is, for the most part, one more step in the carefully executed process of restarting the Rio Tinto Mine and expediting its low-risk transition to a 21st century operation. The funds have been committed by international investment groups Resource Capital Funds, RMB Australia, and other existing and new shareholders. The pricing of 11p reflects current market price and the view that the Company's fundamentals provide significant upside. The recent public support by the Junta de Andalucia for our plans is very significant and the Company and its shareholders look forward to being cleared during 2010 by the authorities to commit significantly more capital to the project modernisation and start-up, planned exploration drilling and the subsequent targeted expansion."

Enquiries

Notes to Editors: About EMED Mining Public Limited EMED Mining was admitted to trading on AIM in May 2005. The Company is committed to responsible development of metal production in Europe, with an initial focus on copper and gold. 

The Group's region of interest are the tectonic belts spanning across Europe and over to the Middle East. The strategy is to evaluate exploration and development opportunities in several jurisdictions throughout this quality mineral belt and to promote sustainable development practices through the implementation of European Union and other international standards. The Company strictly implements its Environmental & Community Policies which includes:

Integrating environmental management into its business, planning and reporting processes;

Promoting a strong environmental ethic throughout the Company and the community;

Complying with, as a minimum, all applicable local and European Union laws and regulations; and

Communicating with community stakeholders in a responsible and transparent manner.

EMED Mining has now established a strong position in the following selected zones:

The copper-mining districts of Cyprus and Spain which are probably among the best known in the world for their base metal endowment. The Company's first priority is to start-up production in Spain and to commence generating profits as from 2011. Since entering Spain in mid-2007 the Company has progressed the Rio Tinto Mine project in the following manner:

- Completed geological investigations and verified Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves in compliance with the JORC Code;

- Completed base case plans for operating a 14-year mine plan to extract ore reserves and to invest in drilling and other activities with a view to expanding and improving the project;

- Acquired 100% of the project (the mine, its associated land and the associated mineral rights along with the plant and its associated land) from vendor company Mantesur Andavalor via (now) wholly-owned subsidiary EMED Tartessus SL;

- Settled with the vendor company's principal creditor MRI Group which is now a shareholder of EMED Mining and has been appointed sales and marketing agent for the project;

- Terminated all involvement in the project by previous controllers of the vendor company and commenced legal proceedings for their non-performance and is considering other actions; 

- Established support for the Company's plans from the communities and the Government; and

- Determined approach with the various authorities to assimilate regulatory changes and keep to timetable. Received clearance from the regulatory authorities to submit the full set of detailed reports and applications for permission to start-up.

Exploration in Turkey and Saudi Arabia via 29%-owned KEFI Minerals Plc. KEFI Minerals owns carefully selected licence areas in Turkey, as well as an extensive proprietary database of regional and specific exploration data providing a pipeline of further projects to evaluate. It is the operator of joint ventures in Turkey with Centerra Gold Inc of Canada and in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia with local construction and investment group ARTAR. See www.kefi-minerals.com 

For further information on the Company's activities, visit www.emed-mining.com or www.emed.tv