Last checked at 19 Mar 2020 07:00
The information contained within this announcement is deemed by the Company to constitute inside information as stipulated under the Market Abuse Regulations (EU) No. 596/2014 ("MAR"). With the publication of this announcement via a Regulatory Information Service, this inside information is now considered to be in the public domain.
Ferro-Alloy Resources Limited
Director's Lock-in and Orderly Marketing arrangements
Ferro-Alloy Resources Limited ("Ferro-Alloy" or the "Company") (LSE: FAR) announces that the Company has recently undertaken a marketing exercise with a limited number of potential investors to seek to place shares for Nick Bridgen, Chief Executive Officer of the Company, in order to make partial payment towards an existing c. £3.3 million outstanding divorce settlement with his ex-wife. Given the unprecedented market volatility and lack of liquidity due to Covid-19 there has not been sufficient demand to successfully complete the planned placing.
As a result of the uncertainty as to the length of the disruption being caused by Covid-19, Mr Bridgen has agreed to enter into a 12 month lock-in over the 64,738,800 ordinary shares in the Company he holds (subject to waiver by Shore Capital and to certain customary exceptions) (the "Lock-in"). Mr Bridgen was subject to a 12-month orderly marketing arrangement entered into in conjunction with the IPO of the Company, that was set to expire on 21 March 2020, the Lock-in replaces this orderly marketing arrangement.
For further information, visit www.ferro-alloy.com or contact:
Ferro-Alloy Resources Limited
Nick Bridgen, Chief Executive Officer info@ferro-alloy.com
Shore Capital (Broker)
Corporate Advisory: Toby Gibbs / Mark Percy / John More Tel: +44 (0) 207 408 4090
Corporate Broking: Jerry Keen
St Brides Partners Limited (Financial PR & IR Adviser)
Catherine Leftley / Priit Piip Tel: +44 207 236 1177
Further information about Ferro-Alloy Resources Limited
The Company's operations are all located at the Balasausqandiq Deposit in Kyzylordinskaya Oblast in the South of Kazakhstan. Currently the Company has two main business activities:
(a) the high grade Balasausqandiq Vanadium Project (the "Project"); and
(b) an existing profitable vanadium concentrate processing operation (the "Existing Operation")
Balasausqandiq is a very large deposit, situated in Kyzylordinskaya Oblast in Southern Kazakhstan. The ore contains vanadium as the principal product, together with by-products of carbon, molybdenum, uranium, rare earth metals, potassium, and aluminium.
A reserve on the JORC 2012 basis has been estimated only the first ore-body number which amounts to 23 million tonnes, not including the small amounts of near-surface oxidised material which is in the Inferred resource category. In the system of Reserve estimation used in Kazakhstan the Reserves are estimated to be over 70m tonnes in ore-bodies 1 to 5 but this does not include the full depth of ore-bodies 2-5.
There is an additional existing concentrate processing operation is situated at the site of the Balasausqandiq Deposit. The production facilities were originally created from a 15,000 tonnes per year pilot plant which was then adapted to treat low-grade concentrates and is now in the process of being expanded and further adapted to treat a wider variety of raw-materials.
The Company has already completed the first steps of a development plan which is expected to result in annualised production capacity increasing gradually to around 1,500 tonnes of contained vanadium pentoxide. The development plan includes upgrades to infrastructure, an extension to the existing factory and the installation of equipment to increase the throughput and to add the facilities to convert AMV into vanadium pentoxide.
The strategy of the Company is to develop both the Existing Operation and the Project in parallel. Although they are located on the same site and use some of the same infrastructure, they are separate operations.