18 Dec 2009 11:30
BERKELEY MINERAL RESOURCES PLC
("BMR" or "The Company")
AGM Statement
At today's Annual General Meeting Masoud Alikhani, the Chairman of Berkeley Mineral Resources Plc, the AIM listed mining and processing company, made the following comments:
"This has been a year when we transformed the business by entering the natural resources arena. It began by BMR entering into an agreement with Zincorous Investments Limited and Dorset Solutions Limited granting BMR the rights to process zinc and lead from certain waste material dumps at the Kabwe Mine in Zambia.
"BMR secured its initial concession of dump 57 at the Kabwe mine in Zambia in July 2008 and followed that up with the securing of rights to dumps 22 and 23 in October 2009. In total, the Company has so far secured an asset base of 1,800,000MT of tailings to process, containing 125,000MT of metals with an estimated market value exceeding US$200 million.
"Throughout the period, LME prices for lead and zinc have been rising due to a resurgence of demand, especially from China and the Far East where the automotive production industry is growing strongly. A report by BMO's Global Strategist Bart Melek has calculated that for lead the price improved by 180% and for zinc by 132% during 2009.
"In putting together the plan to commence exploitation of its concessions, the Company has been conscious that the beneficiation plant to be upgraded and commissioned at Kabwe to produce concentrates needs to be scalable.
"BMR is currently negotiating to secure rights to further adjacent dumps and to expand our operations with the addition of a pyrometallurgical facility. We expect to commence full scale operations in the second half of 2010.
"The Company benefits from the existing infrastructure at Kabwe, including a processing plant, good roads, water supply, ample power, local labour and direct on-site connection to overseas markets via international railways to South Africa and to Indian Ocean ports
"Overall, I am very pleased with the progress made. As well as striving to develop a profitable business we will also be contributing to the environment by planning to clean up a polluted area.
"The Board would like to thank our shareholders for their continued support and our staff for their commitment which has helped the Company to achieve so much in the past year".
All resolutions were duly passed.
18 December 2009
| For further information please contact: | |
| Berkeley Mineral Resources Plc | Tel: 020 7408 1181 |
| Masoud Alikhani, Chairman | |
| Seymour Pierce Limited | |
| Jonathan Wright | Tel: 020 7107 8000 |
| Lothbury Financial Limited | Tel: 020 7011 9411 |
| Michael Padley / Ron Marshman |
The directors of Berkeley Mineral Resources accept responsibility for this announcement.
Notes to Editors
BMR is a minerals company with a primary strategy of investing in tailings processing. By accessing dump deposits with known grades and metallurgy, it avoids exploration or mining costs, has a secure licence and fixed environmental criteria, and can produce concentrates according to viability at current market prices.
The Kabwe deposits, located approximately 110km north of the Zambian capital Lusaka, were discovered in 1902. The series of high-grade replacement ore bodies were characterised by coarse sulphide mineralisation (sphalerite/galena) 1 of 2 bodies were characterised by coarse sulphide mineralisation (sphalerite/galena) surrounded by an oxidation halo comprising a variety of secondary zinc-lead minerals.
From 1906, Kabwe was a significant mine. By the time it closed in 1994, due to depletion of the massive sulphide mineralisation and lowered metal prices, it had produced about 1.8m tons of zinc, 800,000t of lead, 7,800t of vanadium pentoxide and lesser quantities of cadmium, silver and copper. After closure, most of the mine complex was sold off on a piecemeal basis. BMR's project is part of an overall plan to re-assemble the Kabwe site into a single entity operating under a single Large Scale Mining Licence.
BMR benefits from the existing infrastructure at Kabwe, including processing plant, good roads, water supply, ample power, local labour and direct on-site connection to overseas markets via international railways to South Africa and to Indian Ocean ports.