ECR Minerals Regulatory News (ECR)

22 Mar 2007 08:51

Mercator Gold PLC22 March 2007 NOT FOR RELEASE, PUBLICATION OR DISTRIBUTION IN OR INTO THE UNITED STATES, CANADA, AUSTRALIA, THE REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA, THE REPUBLIC OF IRELAND OR JAPAN 22 March 2007 Mercator Gold plc Placing of 6,915,000 ordinary shares at 65p per ordinary share with institutions to raise approximately £4.495 million. LONDON: 22 March 2007, Mercator Gold plc ("Mercator" or the "Company") (MCR.L)announces the placing (the "Placing") of up to 6,915,000 new ordinary shares of10p each ("Ordinary Shares") at a price of 65 pence per share to raise£4,494,750 million before expenses. Cenkos Securities Limited and Ocean Equities Limited acted for the Company inthe Placing of the new Ordinary Shares with institutional investors, which areconditional upon, inter alia, admission of the new Ordinary Shares to trading onAIM. Application has been made for the admission of the new Ordinary Shares totrading and it is expected that admission will occur and dealings will commenceon AIM on 23 March 2007. The new Ordinary Shares will rank pari passu in allrespects with the existing Ordinary Shares currently traded on AIM. Followingadmission there will be 60,595,144 Ordinary Shares in issue. Mercator is preparing to start mining its Meekatharra tenements. The firststage will be the mining of the Surprise deposit as an open pit mine withproduction scheduled to commence by July 2007. Surprise has an ore reserve inthe JORC probable category of 75,000 ounces of gold which will be mined over aseven month period. The second stage will be the development and mining of theProhibition-Vivien-Consols ("PVC") mining area, which contains 380,000 ounces ofJORC indicated resources and is planned to be developed as an underground mine.The Company continues to evaluate the future production potential of the nearbyMaid Marion and Bluebird areas. Funds raised from the Placing will allow Mercator to accelerate the developmentof the PVC mining area and provide for a continuous cash flow as mining switchesfrom Surprise to the PVC mining areas during the first quarter of 2008. Patrick Harford, Managing Director of Mercator Gold, commented: "We are veryencouraged by the continued support of our existing shareholders and we welcomeour new investors in this Placing, which provides the Company with the financialflexibility to sign contracts for, and commence, the development ofProhibition-Vivien-Consols. This is an exciting period for Mercator in itstransition from an exploration-focused company to a fully fledged and cashgenerative gold producer, and, now that our finances are secured we are lookingforward to the future with a great deal of confidence." For further information contact: Mercator Gold plc Patrick Harford, Managing Director Tel: +44 (0) 20 7929 1010Terry Strapp, Chairman Tel: +61 (0) 412 228 422 Email: info@mercatorgold.comWebsite: www.mercatorgold.com Bankside Consultants Ltd Tel: +44 (0) 20 7367 8888 Simon Rothschild Keith IronsOliver Winters AIM: MCR Cenkos Securities Limited ("Cenkos"), which is authorised and regulated in theUnited Kingdom by The Financial Services Authority, is acting exclusively forthe Company as nominated adviser, joint broker and placing agent in connectionwith the Placing. Cenkos is not acting for any other person and will not beresponsible to anyone other than the Company for providing the protectionsafforded to clients of Cenkos or for advising any other person in relation tothe Placing. Ocean Equities Limited ("Ocean"), which is authorised and regulatedin the United Kingdom by The Financial Services Authority, is acting exclusivelyfor the Company as joint broker and placing agent in connection with thePlacing. Ocean is not acting for any other person and will not be responsible toanyone other than the Company for providing the protections afforded to clientsof Ocean or for advising any other person in relation to the Placing. The newOrdinary Shares have not been, nor will be, registered under the United StatesSecurities Act of 1933 (as amended) or under the securities legislation of anystate of the United States of America or of any province or territory of Canada,Australia, Japan, the Republic of Ireland or the Republic of South Africa. Therewill be no public offering of the new Ordinary Shares in the United States.Subject to certain exceptions, the new Ordinary Shares may not be directly orindirectly offered, sold, transferred, taken up or delivered in, into or fromthe United States, Canada, Australia, Japan, the Republic of Ireland or theRepublic of South Africa or their respective territories or possessions. Thisannouncement does not constitute an offer to sell or issue or the solicitationof an offer to buy new Ordinary Shares in any jurisdiction in which such offeror solicitation is unlawful. Accordingly, copies of this announcement are notbeing and must not be mailed or otherwise distributed or sent in or into or fromthe United States, Canada, Australia, Japan, the Republic of Ireland or theRepublic of South Africa and any person receiving this announcement (includingcustodians, nominees and trustees) must not distribute or send it in or into orfrom the United States, Canada, Australia, Japan, the Republic of Ireland or theRepublic of South Africa. This announcement has not been approved by Cenkos orOcean for the purposes of section 21 of the Financial Services and Markets Act2000. This announcement has not been examined or approved by The FinancialServices Authority or the London Stock Exchange or any other regulatoryauthority. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange