11 Sep 2017 07:00
Update on SMB balance sheet restructuring
Avocet Mining Plc (the 'Company') announces today that - despite the standstill agreement having expired - certain financial and trade creditors (the 'Major Creditors') of its subsidiary Société des Mines de Bélahouro SA ('SMB') have expressed the intention to come to a consensual restructuring of SMB's balance sheet. These creditors have continued to be in discussions with SMB with a view to agree such a restructuring.
The Board of the Company met on 8 September 2017. In light of the current circumstances, it was decided to reconvene on 15 September 2017 to re-assess the status of the discussions with the Major Creditors, SMB's liquidity position and the available options. The Board of SMB has not met yet.
Given the current status of discussions, it is unclear whether agreement on a restructuring of the balance sheet can be reached before SMB has exhausted all available sources of financing.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT
Avocet Mining PLC | Blytheweigh Financial PR | J.P. Morgan Cazenove Corporate Broker |
Boudewijn Wentink, CEOYolanda Bolleurs, CFO | Tim Blythe Camilla Horsfall Megan Ray
| Michael Wentworth-Stanley |
+44 20 3709 2570 | +44 207 138 3204 | +44 20 7742 4000
|
NOTES TO EDITORS
Avocet Mining PLC ("Avocet" or the "Company") is an unhedged gold mining and exploration company listed on the London Stock Exchange (ticker: AVM.L) and the Oslo Børs (ticker: AVM.OL). The Company's principal activities are gold mining and exploration in West Africa.
In Burkina Faso the Company owns 90 per cent of the Inata Gold Mine. The Inata Gold Mine poured its first gold in December 2009 and produced 72,485 ounces of gold in 2016. Other assets in Burkina Faso include five exploration permits surrounding the Inata Gold Mine in the broader Bélahouro region. The most advanced of these projects is Souma, some 20 kilometers from the Inata Gold Mine.
The Company also holds an interest in the Tri-K project in Guinea. On 22 May 2017, the Company announced that it had completed its agreement to dispose of 40 per cent of the project to Managem, a Moroccan group listed on the Casablanca stock exchange, which will increase upon completion of a bankable feasibility study for a CIL plant at the site, the incurring of expenditures of at least US$10 million, and the enlarging of the ore reserve, to 70 per cent (in the event of an increase of the reserve to 1 million ounce or more) or 60 per cent (if less than 1 million ounces).