Chaarat Gold Regulatory News (CGH)

8 Nov 2007 07:01

Chaarat Gold Holdings Ltd08 November 2007 Chaarat Gold Holdings Ltd 8 November 2007 Chaarat Gold Holdings Ltd - Admission to AIM ("Chaarat Gold" or the "Company", AIM:CGH), a junior exploration and miningcompany established for the purpose of exploring and developing the licencewhich is currently held by its Kyrgyz wholly-owned subsidiary Chaarat Zaav CJSCin the western part of the Kyrgyz Republic, today announces its first day ofdealings of its Ordinary Shares on AIM. Canaccord Adams Limited is acting as both Nominated Adviser and Broker to theCompany. The Company has raised £8.8m via a Placing at 60p per share, giving the Companya market capitalisation of £43.1m. The funds raised will be used for futureexploration work, which will be focused on increasing the resource delineated bythe Company, as well as on a pre-feasibility study, which is scheduled to beundertaken in 2008. Overview of the Company Chaarat Gold Holdings Ltd was incorporated in the BVI on 20 July 2007 and becamethe holding company of the Group. The Chaarat Group was founded for the purposesof exploring and developing the Licence currently held by Chaarat K in thewestern part of the Kyrgyz Republic. The Licence grants Chaarat K the exclusive rights to conduct geologicalprospecting and exploration for gold and other metals, in the Licence Area, aswell as the exclusive right to apply for a mining licence for the same metals.The Licence Area is 604.6 km2 in extent and hosts many highly prospective goldoccurrences over a strike length of some 28 kilometres. To date, extensiveprospecting has only been conducted on a small number of higher prioritytargets. The Company has focused its exploration on an area that the Directors consideredto be the most prospective and readily accessible part of the Licence Area,based on historical information. Advanced stage prospecting, including theongoing resource drilling programme, on seven priority targets, has delineatedwide zones of gold mineralisation. By the end of the 2006 exploration season, anIndicated and Inferred Resource of 1.9 million ounces at a gold grade of 4.1g/thad been delineated on these targets. Subsidiary amounts of silver and antimonyoccur within the mineralised zones. Additional targets are being explored buthad not been drilled during the 2006 season. The Licence has been granted to 31 December 2008 and the terms of the Licenceallow for the Company to extend the period of licence up to 10 years forsuccessive periods of, generally, two years until 2012. Growth Strategy The Directors' intention for the Group is to continue the intensiveexploration programme to test the priority targets which were identified in itsrecent work programmes and to increase the mineral resource base within theLicence Area. At the same time, the Group intends to undertake a series ofstudies which are expected to lead to the completion of a feasibility studyconducted to bankable standards, on the most advanced part of the MineralResource, which, it is intended, will allow for the design, finance,construction and commissioning of a mine within the next five years. It isfurther intended to establish a Mineral Resource on the priority targets whichwill support a mining operation with a production rate of 200,000 oz of gold ayear in a proposed 10-year first phase of mining. The Licence Area hosts many highly prospective gold occurrences and gold soilsample anomalies which may prove to represent economically viable gold deposits.The Directors believe the Mineral Resources in the Licence Area may be extended,through further exploration, and thereby allow for an expansion of theanticipated first phase mining operation. Furthermore it is the intention to expand the exploration programme to otherparts of the Licence Area. The Company also intends to work actively to identify other gold occurrenceswith potential, in the vicinity of the Licence Area, where it will seek toacquire the rights to prospect in order to expand the gold resource base of theCompany. Key strengths The Directors believe there are a number of reasons why the Company representsan attractive investment proposition: • the Licence Area is within the highly prospective Tien Shan gold belt,which hosts numerous large gold deposits and mining operations, which have asimilar geological setting to that encountered within the Licence Area; • the Kyrgyz Republic has a well established mining industry andinfrastructure and the Directors believe that the government is supportive ofthe mining industry; • exploration results, particularly those received by the Company duringthe 2005 and 2006 exploration seasons, have extended the zones of mineralisationin the known gold occurrences, and have discovered new gold occurrences. Theseresults also have increased the probability that the Licence Area may hostsignificant gold mineralisation, which has the potential to be developed intoeconomically viable gold deposits and mining operations; • exploration results to date have confirmed significant additional goldoccurrences and soil geochemical anomalies within the Licence Area; • within the Company's Board of Directors and Senior Managementthere is appropriate expertise and experience to develop the Company'soperations; and • the Company's future prospects offer further attractive growthpotential in the expansion of Mineral Resources on its current priority targets,as well as in advancing prospecting on the gold occurrences within the LicenceArea that have not yet been intensively prospected. In addition, further growthmay be realised if the Company is able to acquire any other gold occurrenceswith potential within the area surrounding the Licence Area. For further Information: Dekel Golan - Chaarat Gold Holdings Ltd Tel: +44 (0)20 7499 2612Dekel@chaarat.com Canaccord Adams Limited Tel: +44 (0) 20 7050 6500Mike JonesRobin Birchall Alex Glover/Tim Weller Fin Public Relations Tel: 020 7608 2280 orMob: +44 7887 610 335alex.glover@fininternational.com NOTES TO EDITORS Placing Statistics Placing Price: 60p Number of Ordinary Shares being issued pursuant to the Placing: 14,669,833 Number of Ordinary Shares in issue following Admission: 71,883,433 Number of Options in issue following Admission: 8,160,00 Number of Existing Shares: 57,213,600 Existing Shares as a percentage of Enlarged Share Capital: 79.6 per cent. Placing Shares as a percentage of Enlarged Share Capital: 20.4 per cent. Estimated gross proceeds of the Placing receivable by the Company: £8,801,900 Estimated net proceeds of the Placing receivable by the Company (exclusive ofapplicable VAT): £7,673,533 Market capitalisation of the Company at the Placing Price on Admission (assumingthat no Options are exercised): £43,130,059 Key Management Mr Dekel Golan (Chief Executive Officer) (Age 51) Mr Golan is a graduate of Tel Aviv University. Mr Golan, formerly president ofApex Asia LDC, a subsidiary of Apex Silver Mines Limited, has extensiveexperience in promoting and developing businesses both in emerging economies aswell as the developed world. Mr Golan was the founder and Executive Chairman ofAfrican Plantations Corporation Limited. In addition, Mr Golan has advised anumber of international and Israeli companies on business development andcompetitive intelligence. Prior to those activities Mr Golan was Vice President of Business Development ofSupersol, the largest retail operator in Israel and established and managed theunit for competitive intelligence for Dead Sea Bromine Group, the world's largest bromine producer. Mr Golan is an Israeli national. Mr Terence Arthur Cross (Finance Director) (Age 59) Mr Cross is an MBA graduate of the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburgand is a member of the South African Institute of Professional Accountants. Hisworking experience has been gained primarily in mining and related industries. Since immigrating to the UK in 1996, Mr Cross worked for eighteen months as anindependent consultant then for four years as a Projects and Financial ControlManager for Barclays Bank. During the most recent six years he has worked asGroup Financial Controller for a number of AIM listed mining explorationcompanies. Prior to moving to the UK he was, for six years, General Manager of aspecialist equipment and consumables supplier to the mining industry in SouthAfrica. Mr Cross was a director of Johannesburg Stock Exchange listed companies,Consolidated Modderfontein Mines Ltd and South Roodepoort Main Reef Areas Ltd, from 1988 to1992 and was Group Financial Controller and subsequently a director of themining management company, Golden Dumps (Pty) Ltd, through the period from 1986until 1989. Mr Cross was previously employed in financial management positions for elevenyears with Celanese Corporation of New York and for seven years with the BarlowRand Group, of South Africa. Mr Cross holds dual British and South Africannationality. Mr Alexander Novak (Executive Director) (Age 51) Mr Novak is a graduate of the Kazakh Polytechnic Institute (M.Sc). Mr. Novak hasassisted several companies investing in Kyrgyzstan in various aspects offinance, administration and representation vis a vis the local authorities since2000 Mr Novak has more than 25 years experience in various aspects of businessmanagement in Central Asia including negotiations with governmentalinstitutions, contractors, preparation of development plans, monitoring ofoperations and public relations. Mr Novak was instrumental in drafting and signing investment agreements between thegovernment of the Kyrgyz Republic and two extraction companies, Textonic andKumushtak, a subsidiary of Apex Silver Mines Limited. From 1992 to 1995, MrNovak was a founding partner and a director of Maya Elev Diamond Limited, adiamond processing plant in Russia. From 1978 through to 1990, Mr Novak heldseveral positions at numerous construction companies in Kazakhstan, includingDirector of KazStroiMontajAvtomatika. Mr. Novak is also the sole director ofChaarat K. Mr Novak is an Israeli national. Mr Christopher David Palmer-Tomkinson (Non-Executive Chairman) (Age 65) Mr Palmer-Tomkinson graduated from Oxford University with a degree injurisprudence and joined Cazenove in 1963. He served as a partner from 1972until 2001 and as managing director international corporate finance until May2002. He was responsible at various times for Cazenove's African andAustralian business which enabled him to focus on the resource sector. MrPalmer-Tomkinson is a director of Highland Gold Mining Limited. MrPalmer-Tomkinson is a British national. Mr Stuart Robert Comline (Non-Executive Director) (Age 58) Mr Comline is a graduate of the University of Natal South Africa (B.ScHons.Geology) and University of Western Ontario (M.Sc Geology). Mr Comline wasChairman, and formerly President and Chief Operating Officer, of AfriOreLimited, a TSX and AIM listed company until January 2007, when the company waspurchased by Lonmin Plc. Mr Comline has 35 years of experience in theinternational exploration and mining industry mostly in Africa and Canada. Hespent 20 years with JCI Limited, in a number of senior management positionsincluding General Manager of Exploration. In the mid-nineties he was anindependent consultant and worked with merchant banks and major and juniorexploration companies within the mining and exploration field until joiningAfriOre Limited in 1997. Mr Comline has experience in various commoditiesincluding gold, platinum, base metals, diamonds and coal. Mr Comline is currently an independent advisor to several mineral explorationcompanies and serves Talon Metals Corporation, a TSX listed mining and mineralexploration company, as a non-executive director. Mr Comline is a Britishnational. Mr Oliver Raymond Greene (Non-Executive Director) (Age 64) Oliver Greene is a graduate in Politics, Philosophy and Economics from OxfordUniversity. A career banker, he has over thirty five years experience as apractitioner in international corporate finance, credit and corporate recoveryin the US and Europe. Mr Greene joined Citibank in 1965 holding various assignments in New York andLondon with experience in Petroleum and Chemicals financing, leasing andstructured finance, and exposure to Scandinavian and Eastern European markets.In 1980 Mr Greene moved to Bankers Trust Company to head their UK WorldCorporate Department in London. He joined Chase Manhattan Bank in 1988 asManaging Director, Head of UK Corporate Finance followed in 1990 by themanagement of impaired assets in the UK. In 1996 Mr Greene moved to UBS as aManaging Director in Corporate Finance before accepting an invitation to jointhe European Bank for Reconstruction & Development in 1998 as Director ofCorporate Recovery. On Mr Greene's retirement from the EBRD in 2003 he became a consultant to thebank, an appointment that continues. Mr Greene served as a member of theSupervisory Board and Chairman of the Remuneration Committee of Banca ComercialaRomana S.A. in Bucharest from 2004 to 2006. Since 2004 Mr Greene has been amember of the Supervisory Board and Chairman of the Audit Committee of BankPekao S.A Warsaw (a publicly listed Unicredito Group subsidiary) and, since2006, a member of the Supervisory Board of Korado AS in the Czech Republic. MrGreene is a US/UK dual national. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange