Berkeley Mineral Resources Regulatory News (BMR)

BERKELEY MINERAL RESOURCES PLC

("BMR" or the "Company")

Interim Results for the six months ended 31 December 2011

Berkeley Mineral Resources Plc, the AIM-listed mining and processing company, is pleased to announce its interim results for the six month period ended 31 December 2011.

Highlights:

·; At Kabwe in Zambia, BMR now holds a historically estimated 7.14 million tonnes of ore tailings containing various metals, principally high-grade lead and zinc, of which 2.82 million tonnes currently conform to the JORC Measured classification.

·; The budgeted capital costs of the planned processing plant and working capital to commence Kabwe operations are substantially funded within the Company's balance sheet.

·; The signing of an exclusive Option in December 2011 for BMR to undertake due diligence in respect of three separate stockpiles in Northern Zambia comprising copper tailings for which extensive data exists. Upon exercise of the Option, BMR may then acquire 80% of the three stockpiles

·; In discussions with interested parties to enter into sales contracts for the purchase of the Kabwe washplant tailings.

Highlights post period end:

·; Final aggregate measurement to JORC standards continues for the rest of the tailings stockpiles at Kabwe.

·; A Pre-Feasibility Study has been commissioned from Metanza for the leachplant sections of the stockpiles at Kabwe.

·; BMR is at an advanced stage of the negotiations announced on 24 July 2011 to acquire from Alberg Mining Ltd an existing Large Scale licence to all of the residual partly mined or unmined underground ore bodies remaining at the former Kabwe mine, together with infrastructure owned by Silverlining Ventures Ltd. Final approvals from the authorities in Zambia to the transactions are expected shortly. Historical ore estimates for the ore bodies at the mine are in excess of 22 million tonnes containing an estimated 1.2 million tonnes of zinc, lead, silver, cadmium and other valuable minerals.

CHAIRMAN'S STATEMENT

Background to BMR's involvement in Zambia

Zambia has a long and sustainable history of mining development from the early years of the last century. Due to substantial increases in metal and mineral prices over recent years, there has been a large scale investment in the mining sector in Zambia. By 2010 copper output from the world-class Zambian Copperbelt resources was the highest since 1973. Zambia is currently the world's third largest exporter of copper and forecasts for the country's exports in 2012 are over one million tons. Zambia is one of the best mining jurisdictions in Africa, included in the 2011/2012 Fraser Institute Policy Potential Index as one of the top eight countries on the Continent.

BMR commenced negotiating to acquire its first tailings project at the site of one of Zambia's most important former mines, the Kabwe zinc and lead mine, early in 2008. This put the Company at the forefront of modern mineral development in Zambia. BMR's initiative has subsequently been validated by corporate activity in the country, including the acquisition of Sable Zinc, the former owners of the Kabwe mine, by Glencore International and the acquisition of Sable's parent company, Metorex, by Chinese-based Jinchuan Group after it out-bid an earlier offer by Brazilian miner, Vale.

Milestones achieved in the period under review

BMR's first acquisition of stockpile resources of lead and zinc at Kabwe in Zambia was made in July 2008. At that time the ownership of the mining complex at the former Kabwe mine was fragmented and complex. BMR's overall strategy throughout has been to consolidate all the resources at Kabwe under one Large Scale Mining Licence. During the period under review the Company has continued to achieve important milestones in achieving this aim.

With shareholder support, BMR acquired all the remaining stockpiles not already owned at Kabwe on 20 June 2011 for a total cash consideration of £6.6m. Following extensive verification by The Mineral Corporation, the Company's retained consultants, it now owns a historically estimated tailings resource of 7.14m tons, principally high gradelead and zinc, of which 2.82m tonnes currently conforms to the JORC Measured classification.

JORC Mineral Resources

JORC-compliant mineral resource estimates for the lead and zinc in the washplant tailings and central section of the leachplant tailings, based on assays of the material accessed by the auger drilling campaign carried out in July 2010 and including the washplant re-interpretation announced on 23 November 2011, are as follows:  

JORC Mineral Resource estimates on Lead (Pb) and Zinc (Zn) for the Kabwe washplant tailings

The washplant section covered by this resources estimate is coloured sky blue on the relevant illustrated map on the BMR website at http://www.bmrplc.com/projects/resources.

JORC Mineral Resource estimates on Lead (Pb) and Zinc (Zn) for the central section of Kabwe leachplant tailings

The central section of the leachplant tailings covered by this resources estimate is coloured purple on the relevant illustrated map on the BMR website at http://www.bmrplc.com/projects/resources.

Both the above estimates were prepared by Mr. D R Young (BSc. Hons., Geology), who is a Competent Person as defined by the JORC Code (2004), being registered as a Professional Natural Scientist with the South African Council for Natural Scientific Professions (SACNASP), with more than five years experience relevant to resource estimation.

Subsequent testing has revealed additional traces of copper, vanadium, iron and manganese. 

The washplant tailings

With a high combined grade of lead and zinc at 17.87%, the value of the JORC-compliant dry tonnage of 573,458 of the washplant section of the tailings is intended to be sold without further processing. Additionally, the Directors believe there is an environmental need to remove the potentially polluting material from site as soon as possible.

The Board has commenced discussions with interested parties to enter into sales contracts to buy the washplant tailings. These parties have been invited to submit offers for the material and some have indicated they would prefer to concentrate these tailings on site prior to transportation in view of rising transport prices by land and sea. As even a concentration to an acceptable level would raise the margins BMR can expect from the sale of the washplant tailings, the Directors are currently considering this option.

 The Directors believe that the Kabwe site is ideally located for rail transport through Indian Ocean ports to smelters in Far Eastern markets and the washplant sections of the stockpiles are adjacent to the Kabwe railway sidings.

Simplified leachplant pre-feasibility study

As a result of the decision to sell the washplant tailings, the leachplant pre-feasibility Study, currently being undertaken by Metanza, will focus on the main leachplant tailings (marked "LP" on the plan of Stand 5187 on the Company's website at http://www.bmrplc.com/projects/resources) and the slag stockpiles (marked Dumps 57, 21 and 22). The leachplant study will include design criteria, major equipment listing, and capital and operating cost estimates for the recommended processing routes. Further drilling of the slag stockpiles was undertaken in December 2011 to complete the resource information for the study.

Mintek are currently completing mineralogy and metallurgical testing of composite samples of these stockpiles which is scheduled to be concluded shortly.

Environmental considerations

When operations at Kabwe had ceased previously in 1994 there were significant environmental concerns. BMR takes its responsibilities regarding the environment seriously. BMR's management continually reviews its activities to ensure compliance with the Copperbelt Environmental Plan (CEP) requirements in respect of environmental issues.

Zambian Management

On 28 July 2011, BMR appointed Dennis Human B.Sc. (Hons), Bus. Admin. (Hons), as Consulting Geologist for its operations at Kabwe. Mr Human is an experienced geologist and land surveyor with over 30 years widespread experience of mining and processing operations involving gold, lead, zinc, copper and iron ore in various African countries and in Europe.

BMR has also retained two of the existing Directors of its Zambian-registered subsidiaries Enviro Props Ltd and Enviro Processing Ltd. Albert Chalwe is a Mechanical Engineer with 19 years' service to Zambian railways and marketing experience prior to becoming a director of Alberg Ltd, a mining company based at Kabwe, in 2006. Edgar Njobvu is an Electronics Engineer with 20 years practical experience in the mining industry including service with ZCCM, the Zambian state mining company, and Kabwe Power and Metal Ltd prior to becoming a director of Zincorous Investments Ltd and Silverlining Ventures Ltd, both mining companies based at Kabwe, in 2000.

Both of these Zambian directors have widespread experience, knowledge and contacts regarding the Kabwe stockpiles and mining operations.

Chingola copper tailings

On 11 December the Company was able to announce the signing of an Option Agreement which gives BMR the exclusive right to carry out due diligence on substantial stockpiles of copper tailings located in the Chingola area in the north of Zambia, about 220km from Kabwe. The Option is in respect of stockpiles at three separate areas located within a 7km radius of each other.

Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines Ltd ("ZCCM"), the parastatal mining company, produced closure records in which it estimated the total above-ground resources remaining in the three areas concerned to be 98.9 million tonnes of tailings. In aggregate, ZCCM estimated that these tailings contain 1.4 million tonnes of copper metal. All historic estimates are not JORC compliant and have not been verified at this time and therefore cannot be relied upon for economic assessment purposes.

Shares dealings

Details of share purchases by the Directors indicating their support for the Company during the period to date and shares issued to others on exercise of share options are shown in notes 5 and 6 to these results.

RESULTS FOR THE PERIOD

For the six month period ended 31 December 2011, the loss was £0.32m before tax compared with a loss of £0.86m for the same period in prior year. The results include share-based payment costs for operations in Zambia, the issue of share options of £nil (2011: £0.43m), legal and professional fees, salaries and fees for management and professionals hired both in UK and Zambia.

At 31 December 2011, the net assets of BMR had grown to £18.4m (2010: £10.9m), of which £9.3m represented cash resources.

Outlook

We have already received a JORC standard Measured resource statement for the washplant tailings and for the central section of the leachplant tailings at Kabwe; we have also commissioned the JORC standard resource statements for all the remaining leachplant tailings and slag stockpiles. We have appointed consultants to prepare a Prefeasibility Study including the specification and costing parameters for the construction of an appropriate beneficiation plant.

The Company is at an advanced stage of negotiations to acquire the existing Large Scale licence to all the residual partly mined or unmined underground ore bodies remaining at the former Kabwe mine, together with shafts and other infrastructure; in all, these ore bodies are historically estimated to contain in excess of 22 million tonnes comprising some 1.2 million tonnes of zinc, lead, silver, cadmium and other valuable minerals.

The outlook for the Company is therefore very promising. During the period under review, we have acquired the rights to above-ground stockpiles at Kabwe and undertaken negotiations to acquire the remaining un-mined or partly mined ore bodies there, both containing substantial amounts of metal. We have also concluded an exclusive Option to carry out due diligence in respect of substantial copper tailings at Chingola. The steps we have taken and will continue to take have set us firmly on the road to becoming an important supplier of vital base metals over the years ahead.

For further information please see the Company's website at http://www.bmrplc.com

M A Alikhani 30 March 2012

Chairman

This release has been reviewed by Dennis Human, B.Sc. (Hons), Bus. Admin (Hons), Consulting Geologist in accordance with the guidance note for Mining, Oil & Gas Companies issued by the London Stock Exchange in respect of AIM Companies.

BERKELEY MINERAL RESOURCES PLC

CONSOLIDATED STATEMENT OF COMPREHENSIVE INCOME

For the six month period ended 31 December 2011

CONSOLIDATED STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL POSITION

Registered Number 02401127

As at 31 December 2011

CONSOLIDATED CASH FLOW STATEMENT

for the six month period ended 31 December 2011

CONSOLIDATED STATEMENT OF CHANGES IN EQUITY

for the six month period ended 31 December 2011

Notes to the interim results:

1. General information and accounting policiesBMR is a company incorporated in the United Kingdom under the Companies Act 1985.This Announcement is for the interim results for the period ended 31 December 2011.

2. Basis of preparationThe consolidated interim financial information has been prepared using policies based on International Financial Reporting Standards issued by the International Accounting Standards Board ("IASB") as adopted by the European Union, which are expected to be applied in the Group's financial statements for the year ending 30 June 2012.The consolidated interim results for the period 1 July 2011 to 31 December 2011 is unaudited, does not include all the information required for full financial statements and should be read in conjunction with the Group's consolidated financial statements for the year ended 30 June 2011. In the opinion of the Directors the consolidated interim results for the period represents fairly the financial position, results from operation and cash flows for the period in conformity with generally accepted accounting principles consistently applied. The consolidated interim financial information incorporates comparative figures for the interim period 1 July 2010 to 31 December 2010 and the audited financial year to 30 June 2011. As permitted, the Group has chosen not to adopt IAS34 'Interim Financial Reporting'.The annual financial statements of BMR are prepared in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards ('IFRSs') as issued by the International Accounting Standards Board ('IASB') and as adopted by the European Union. The Group's consolidated annual financial statements for the year ended 30 June 2011, have been filed with the Registrar of Companies and are available on the Company's website www.bmrplc.com. The auditor's report on those financial statements was unqualified and did not contain a statement under sections 498(2) or (3) of the Companies Act 2006.

3. The Directors do not recommend the payment of a dividend.

4. The loss per share of 0.03 pence (2010: loss 0.19 pence) has been calculated on the basis of the loss of £328,682 (2010: loss £863,632) and on 1,007,709,792 (2010: 454,078,277) ordinary shares, being the weighted average number of ordinary shares in issue during the period ended 31 December 2011.

5. Directors' share dealings As announced, the Directors purchased the following shares in the Company during the period under review:-M Alikhani - 3,300,000 shares at 2.87p per share and 1,000,000 shares at 2.90p per share;H Furman - 677,800 shares at 2.95p per share; andM Wainwright - 847,500 shares at 2.95p per share

6. Events after the Reporting Date

7. As announced on 16 March 2012 following the exercise of share options, the Company issued 5,330,000 ordinary shares of 1p each.

8. On 20 January 2012 M Alikhani purchased a further 1,200,000 ordinary shares in the Company at a price of 3.89p per share