4 Oct 2010 07:00
Berkeley Mineral Resources Plc
("BMR" or "the Company")
PLACING & ISSUE OF EQUITY
TOTAL VOTING RIGHTS
Berkeley Mineral Resources Plc, a company engaged in the reprocessing of tailing dumps at Kabwe in Zambia, announces that it has raised a total of £850,000 before expenses by way of a Placing of 42,500,000 new ordinary shares at a price of 2p per share (the "Placing Shares").
These funds have been raised primarily to accelerate the development of the processing of the tailings dumps at Kabwe Mine in Zambia once the Company has completed their acquisition.
In addition, 937,500 shares have been issued in lieu of commission payable in respect of the placing (the "Commission Shares").
The Placing Shares and Commission Shares will rank pari passu with all existing Ordinary Shares in the capital of the Company. Application has been made for the Placing Shares and the Commission Shares to be admitted to trading on AIM ("Admission"). Admission is expected to commence on 7 October 2010, when the enlarged issued share capital of the Company will total 549,221,696 Ordinary Shares (the "Enlarged Share Capital").
Following the Placing, the above figure of 549,221,696 Ordinary Shares may be used by shareholders of the Company 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, Berkeley Minerals Resources under the Financial Service Authority's Disclosure and Transparency Rules.
Masoud Alikhani, Chairman of Berkeley Mineral Resources Plc, commented:
"These funds will allow BMR to accelerate the work at Kabwe and to generate cashflow immediately we complete the purchase of the tailings which we expect to be in the near future".
Contacts:
Masoud Alikhani, Chairman, Berkeley Mineral Resources 020 7408 1181
Stewart Dickson / Jonathan Wright, Seymour Pierce 020 7107 8000
Michael Padley / Gary Middleton, Lothbury Financial Services 020 7868 2010
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. 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 tonnes 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. Berkeley'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.
The waste dumps at Kabwe cover an area of about 1km² and contain over 7m tons of various waste residues with an estimated combined metal content of 455,000t zinc and 368,500t lead.
BMR benefits from the existing infrastructure at Kabwe, including processing plant, good roads, water supply, ample power, local labour and direct on-site sidings connection to overseas markets via international railways to South Africa and to Indian Ocean ports.
For further information please see the Company's website at http://www.bmrplc.com
The directors of Berkeley Mineral Resources accept responsibility for this announcement.