Atalaya Mining Regulatory News (ATYM)

18 Dec 2006 07:00

EMED Mining Public Limited18 December 2006 AIM: EMED 18 December 2006 KEFI MINERALS, THE MINING COMPANY FOR TURKEY FOUNDED BY EMED, IS ADMITTED TO AIM EMED Mining Public Limited ("EMED Mining" or "the Company") announces thecommencement of trading on AIM today of KEFI Minerals Plc ("KEFI") (AIM: KEFI)following the successful placing of 46,666,667 KEFI Shares at 3p to raise £1.40million. KEFI will have a market capitalisation of £2.66 million at theplacing price on Admission. KEFI was formed by EMED Mining to manage its gold and copper assets in Turkeyand Bulgaria. KEFI will focus on the discovery of economic mineral deposits inthese countries, concentrating initially on Turkey which has achieved globalrenown in the last 2 years as a prolific minerals area. KEFI owns 20exploration licences in Turkey and Bulgaria and a proprietary database whichsummarises the field work in over 100 Turkish locations. EMED Mining willsupport KEFI with the use of its technical and administration systems andpersonnel. Any opportunities that EMED identifies in Bulgaria or Turkey willalso be referred to KEFI. The major shareholders in KEFI following the Placing are EMED Mining (39%),Starvest plc (21%) and Management (10%). Australian institution DirectPortfoliohas committed to a 4% shareholding by participating in the Placing and bycommitting to a further 1.7 million shares at 3p in April 2007. Harry Anagnostaras-Adams, Managing Director of EMED Mining and Chairman of KEFI,commented "KEFI is designed to be competitive in Turkey, which has emerged inthe past two years as a prolific minerals area. In the past two years there hasbeen much foreign investment in the Turkish minerals sector, many significantdiscoveries and efficient permitting of new project developments. We are pleasedwith the support received for KEFI from UK investors including from ourshareholders and from KEFI's other founding shareholder, Starvest Plc. We arealso confident that KEFI, under the expertise of Jeff Raynor as ManagingDirector, who was previously EMED's Head of Exploration in Eastern Europe, willbe a strong exploration force in Turkey and Bulgaria.' -Ends- Enquiries EMED Mining Nabarro Wells Parkgreen CommunicationsHarry Anagnostaras-Adams Richard Swindells Ana Ribeiro+357 9945 7843 or +44 (0) 20 7710 7400 +44 (0) 20 7493 3713+61 412 369 710www.emed-resources.com www.emed.tv DETAILED BACKGROUND INFORMATION AND NOTES FOR EDITORS EMED Mining's holding in KEFI is reduced from 70% to 39% by KEFI's placing. Asa result, EMED Mining will cease to consolidate KEFI for accounting purposes andwill treat its holding in KEFI as an "associate" going forwards. As part ofKEFI's AIM admission, EMED Mining has converted (into shares in KEFI) a loan toKEFI in the amount of £300,000. EMED Mining and KEFI have also entered into anagreement whereby, inter alia, EMED Mining agrees not to compete with KEFI inBulgaria and Turkey and KEFI agrees to refer mining or exploration opportunitiesin certain other countries to EMED Mining. According to KEFI's AIM admissiondocument dated 12 December 2006, as at 30 June 2006, KEFI's pro forma netliabilities (after discharge of EMED Mining's £300,000 loan and before receiptof placing proceeds) stood at £28,000. To date, KEFI and its subsidiaries havenot reported revenues and have incurred losses. KEFI's GEOGRAPHIC FOCUS Turkey has an established historical mining background with both large and smallscale deposits of various commodities being successfully identified anddeveloped, predominantly by local entities. Active exploration and developmentby foreign mining companies in modern times has been limited but the Director'sbelieve the recent gold discoveries and developments are positive indicators ofthe mineral wealth of the known Tethyan metallogenic belt and the commitment ofthe Turkish Government towards supporting and expanding the mining industry. Bulgaria also has a long tradition of mining for base metals and preciousmetals, and has a number of current operating mines. KEFI COMPANY HISTORY KEFI was formed on 24 October 2006 for the purpose of holding EMED Mining'sexploration interests in Turkey and Bulgaria with a view to creating shareholdervalue through the discovery and exploitation of gold and copper deposits. In November 2006, KEFI completed the acquisition of EMED Mining's Turkish andBulgarian exploration interests through the acquisition of EMED Mining'ssubsidiary Mediterranean Minerals (Bulgaria) EOOD ("MMB") which owns the entireissued share capital of Dogu Akdeniz Mineralleri Sanayi ve Ticaret Limited Sirketi. In addition, KEFI acquired a database of mining information relating toTurkey. KEFI will be able to develop and realise the potential of these assetsmore effectively than was possible within EMED Mining. Since December 2004, KEFI has been funded by loans from EMED Mining ofapproximately £350,000 and by equity investment totaling £120,000. Out of theloans provided by EMED Mining, £25,000 has been waived and £300,000 has beenassigned to KEFI as part of the arrangements relating to the acquisition of MMBby KEFI. THE KEFI BUSINESS KEFI and its subsidiaries, (the "Group"')s exploration assets compriseexploration licences in Turkey and Bulgaria and the ownership of a databasecontaining information about further prospective sites in Turkey. In Turkey, KEFI has two projects. It holds fifteen exploration licences in oneproject covering an approximate area of 253 square kilometres on predominantlystate forestry land in the Artvin province of north-eastern Turkey (the "ArtvinProject"). It also holds four exploration licences in the second project,covering an approximate area of 68 square kilometres on predominantly farmingland in the Gumushane province of eastern Turkey (the "Gumushane Project"). In Bulgaria, KEFI has one project area comprising one exploration licencecovering an approximate area of 71 square kilometres on predominantly stateforestry land, farming land and rural villages, which is located approximately150 kilometres south of Sofia (the Lehovo Project). KEFI also holds the rights to a proprietary database which contains informationabout approximately 100 further prospective sites in Turkey. The Group has begunto exploit this information in order to provide a pipeline of new explorationtargets. EMED Mining has agreed, pursuant to a Relationship Agreement executed with KEFI,that any mining opportunities identified by EMED Mining which are in Bulgaria orTurkey will be referred to KEFI for the Board's consideration. In addition,pursuant to the terms of the Services Agreement, EMED Mining's technical andadministrative systems and personnel are available for use by KEFI on acost-recovery basis. ABOUT EMED MINING EMED admiited to trading on AIM in May 2005 following an initial public offeringof its shares. The company is headquartered in Cyprus and has a strongcommitment to responsible development in the region. The EMED Group's region of interest is the Mesozoic to Tertiary age tectonicbelt that winds over 3,000km from Eastern Europe to Iran. The strategy is toevaluate exploration and development opportunities in several jurisdictionsthroughout this quality mineral belt and to promote sustainable developmentpractices through implementation of European Union and other leading-edgeinternational standards. EMED Mining recently co-hosted with the Green Party ofCyprus an international conference on Responsible Mining and EnvironmentalManagement. EMED Mining has, from the outset, strictly implemented itsEnvironmental & Community Policy which includes: • Integrating environmental management into our 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. • Communicating with community stakeholders in a responsible and transparent manner. EMED Mining has now established a strong position in the following zones withinits area of interest: • Cyprus/Middle East exploration is centred on the Troodos ophiolitecomplex. The targeted mineralisation style is volcanic-hosted massive sulphidecopper deposits, similar to the larger Cyprus copper mines - three of whichexceeded 10 million tonnes of ore, at grades between 1% and 4.5%. EMED isundertaking a preliminary feasibility study on mining copper-zinc resources inthe Klirou District and 7 target areas are being explored for additionalmineable deposits. • Slovakia/Eastern Europe exploration areas are centred on a cluster ofvolcanic centres in Slovakia and Romania. Low-detection geochemical methods arebeing applied to these areas for the first time together with open pit bulkmining concepts. The targeted mineralisation styles are high-grade epithermalgold, or bulk-mineable epithermal gold and porphyry copper-gold. The companyannounced on 23 October 2006 a gold discovery in Slovakia. • Georgia/Caucasus exploration areas form a cluster of gold prospectscentred in Georgia. EMED Mining's main prospects are within the Upper RachaLicence with reserves and resources (Russian classification) of 2.4 millionounces of gold. Assays are pending on approximately 900 samples from theCompany's first field program and a progress report will issue as results areassembled and interpreted. • Turkey/Bulgaria exploration areas have been transferred to 39%-ownedKEFI Minerals Plc, which was admitted to AIM on 18 December 2006. KEFI holds,via its Turkish and Bulgarian subsidiaries, two clusters of tenements in Turkeyand the Lehovo tenement in Bulgaria, along with an extensive proprietarydatabase. For further information on the Company's activities, visit www.emed-mining.comor www.emed.tv This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange