23 Jun 2017 07:00
BMR Group PLC
("BMR" and the "Company")
FUND RAISE and GENERAL UPDATE
This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of Regulation 596/2014.
Fund raise
BMR Group PLC is pleased to announce that Peterhouse Corporate Finance has raised GBP 350,000 before expenses, by way of a placing of 9,333,333 new ordinary shares of GBP0.01 each in the capital of the Company (the "Placing Shares") at 3.75p per share.
Application will be made to the London Stock Exchange for the Placing Shares to be admitted to trading on AIM and it is expected that admission will become effective and trading will commence on 28 June 2017. The Placing Shares will rank pari passu with the existing ordinary shares of the Company.
Following admission of the Placing Shares to trading on AIM, the Company will have a total of 198,339,566 ordinary shares in issue. This figure may be used by shareholders as the denominator for the calculations by which they will determine if they are required to notify their interest in, or a change to their interest in, the Company under the FCA's Disclosure and Transparency Rules.
General update
The Directors are pleased to report that civil construction works for the Kabwe plant remain on track with construction scheduled to complete in the fourth quarter of 2017, ahead of the start of commissioning by the end of the year, subject to equipment suppliers meeting their delivery schedules.
Provided construction and commissioning continue to remain on track, the Directors still anticipate production commencing in the first quarter next year.
The Company has requested Zambian Electrical Supply Commission (ZESCO) to supply a third 500 Kva transformer to ensure adequate capacity before plant commissioning.
The Directors are also pleased to announce that drilling phases 3 and 4 of the Kashitu large scale mining licence exploration programme have been completed.
Evaluation of the phase 3 results, based on assays carried out in-house by X Ray Fluorescence (XRF), reported selected grades of up to 40.64% of zinc and up to 18.52% of lead. The silver grades will be announced when they become available.
Overall, while the phase 4 assay results for zinc grades were not of the same magnitude as those of phase 3, suggesting a 'tailing off' of mineralisation to the south east, the Directors believe that they remain of interest as a potential ore-blending resource.
All results from each of the four phases of exploration are currently being analysed in conjunction with the historic exploration data.
Note: This announcement has been reviewed by Geoff Casson, B.Sc. (Hons), PhD, R Eng (Zambia), Member Engineering Institute of Zambia (Metallurgy), General Manager of the Company's Zambian subsidiary, Enviro Processing Ltd, who is a Qualified Person in accordance with the guidance note for Mining, Oil & Gas Companies issued by the London Stock Exchange in respect of AIM Companies.
Alex Borrelli, Chairman, commented: "We have given detailed consideration to the cash requirements of the Company over the next few months for the Kabwe plant construction as well as for necessary working capital. We concluded that it is in shareholders' best interests for this small fund raise to be completed without further delay while we remain in frequent discussions with African Compass International Limited ("ACI") over our first drawdown request under the project construction and trade finance agreement referred to in our announcement on 8 June 2017, for the awaited initial $900,000.
On the basis of the current fund raising and subject to ACI satisfying its commitments under that facility agreement, we are satisfied that the construction of the Kabwe plant is fully funded."
For further information:
BMR Group PLC 020 7734 7282
Alex Borrelli, CEO and Chairman
WH Ireland Limited 020 7220 1666
NOMAD and Joint Broker
Chris Fielding, Head of Corporate Finance
Peterhouse Corporate Finance 020 7469 0930
Joint Broker
Lucy Williams/ Duncan Vasey/ Heena Karani