MTR.L Regulatory News (MTR)

9 Dec 2016 07:00

09 December 2016

Metal Tiger plc

(“Metal Tiger” or the “Company”)

Strategic Update

Metal Tiger plc (LON:MTR), the London Stock Exchange AIM listed investor in strategic natural resources is pleased to announce a strategic update for shareholders.

The Board of the Company has noted the volatility of the share price following the announcement made on 25 November 2016 regarding a potential offer for Metal Tiger which was subsequently rejected by the Company’s independent directors on the basis that the offer fundamentally undervalued the Company.

Notwithstanding that rejection, the Directors believe that circumstances of the potential offer have led to recent instability in the market and in light of this a significant restructuring of the Board and management of the Company has occurred.

The Board would like to note that despite the fundamentally undervalued potential offer and the subsequent volatility, the Company's key interests continue to make substantial progress with 2017 expected to deliver further key milestones. It is in that regard and with proper recognition of shareholder feedback of late, the Board would like to confirm the current status and strategic plans with respect to its core business interests.

Botswana Copper-Silver (Metal Tiger – 30%):

The Company's Botswanan Joint Venture continues to move at a highly efficient pace. From first discovery of the copper-silver deposit at T3 in March 2016, a material maiden resource statement has been completed in September 2016 and an economically robust Scoping Study published earlier this week.

The Scoping Study demonstrated a base case NPV(10%) of US$180m at a US$2.53/lb copper price (consensus price Oct16). With the current copper spot price at circa 2.64$/lb the Directors see a possible valuation upside should the copper price out perform the October consensus.

On a macro level the Directors believe that should the T3 project be taken into production it will commence operations in a supply-deficit market that will occur in 2019/2020 and that increasing demand from emerging markets in China and elsewhere, infrastructure programmes, consumer goods demand and new technologies (eg. renewable energy and electric vehicles), will provide further upside. The Directors believe that the high quality of the concentrate to be produced from the open pit mine at T3 will be in high demand as a blend to lower quality copper concentrates and therefore should command a higher price because of this.

On the exploration side, the resource as outlined is across only one square kilometre of the 1,000 square kilometres representing the prospective T3 dome structure. The Joint Venture has multiple additional targets within T3 and elsewhere across its extensive 6,500 square kilometre Kalahari Copper Belt licences.

Given the highly prospective nature of the JV licence and surrounding T3 land, the Directors believe the most accretive activity in 2017 will be further near project exploration as this has the best potential to deliver increased return on investment. Additionally, given the proximity of the targets, any additional resource is not expected to materially increase the Capex requirements for the project and therefore one could expect that should similar deposits to T3 be located and proven the result should significantly increase the NPV of the project. The Directors believe that any such discoveries could quickly be incorporated into the pre-feasibility / definitive feasibility study and create a spoke-hub model whereby several deposits feed the processing plant. As it stands the Directors note that any 2017 work programme will be subject to both MTR and MOD being able to finance their respective portions.

Metal Tiger holds a 30% stake in this project and has experienced significant interest in our position from third parties. In this regard the Joint Venture has been party to a number of Non-Disclosure Agreements with third parties expressing an interest in the project and several of these parties are on-site in Botswana currently. In addition, Metal Tiger received an unsolicited cash bid subject to due diligence to acquire our 30% position prior to the release of the Scoping Study. This approach was rejected as undervaluing Metal Tiger's strategic project stake but demonstrated the extent of interest in this project.

The Directors note that during MOD’s recent visit to London, Michael McNeilly, whom at the time was Company Secretary and Commercial Manager, Julian Hanna (MD of MOD Resources Ltd) and Jacques Van Rensburg (Exploration Manager for MOD Resources Ltd) attended several meetings with private equity investors interested in the Botswanan project and that a variety of different options were discussed and are actively being assessed by both parties.

The Board is proactively working with its joint venture partners MOD Resources to gather as much knowledge regarding the Botswanan project mineralisation in general and to push the project towards development and further exploration. In this regard Terry Grammer remains on the exploration advisory team of the Joint Venture alongside Julian Hanna and Jacques Van Rensburg.

Thailand Silver-Lead-Zinc (Metal Tiger Interest – 77.9%):

Our Joint Venture in Thailand continues to progress with the steps being implemented to secure mining permits for the two silver-lead-zinc mines in Kanchanthaburi province, located in north west Thailand.

Various project, baseline water studies, environmental, mine planning and community studies are underway and yielding positive commercial and social results.

The team is focused on developing a safe and secure operating mine and processing plant facility for the primary benefit of the Thai people and in manner that demonstrates the ability of respectful international companies to achieve a positive commercial outcome from their investment in Thailand, its resources and its people.

The team is focused on developing a project that has substantial longevity and in this regard are actively working with Bara Consulting to assess the potential to add to the 2012 NI-43-101 Resource. In particular this work is focused on the portions of the Boh-Yai mine where there is more significant zinc potential. There is a significant amount of historical drill logs, maps and other information that is in the process of being assessed by Bara Consulting and the Directors are confident that such efforts will lead to results that can be assessed by a competent person and added to the resource in an updated NI-43-101 report.

Spain Tungsten-Gold-Antimony (Metal Tiger interest - 50%):

Work has continued at pace on the Maria Gold/Antimony and Logrosan Tungsten/Gold Joint Ventures. The Company with its advisers is currently assessing the latest exploration data from which we can confirm positive findings have been achieved notably in respect of additional gold/antimony mineralisation identified through our partners drilling programme and other activities.

We will provide further Spanish updates in the near term.

Pipeline:

Metal Tiger’s core projects outlined above and notably those held in Botswana and Thailand, offer, in the Board’s view, an inherent value considerably higher than the current market capitalisation. This has been validated by previous analyst reports and a new broker note to be released shortly.

It is therefore incumbent on the Board to focus Company resources in furthering our core Metal Projects and ensuring the valuation thereof is properly reflected in our market valuation.

The Board consider that adding new project interests into Metal Tiger is not necessary and would not add any additional value in the eyes of investors. New projects within the Company’s pipeline, and non-core project interests within the Company will be vended into other vehicles or disposed.

Asset Trading:

We recognise shareholders desire to see Company resources invested in our key Metal Projects and not necessarily invested into other resource companies through equity investments undertaken by our Asset Trading division.

The Board are therefore of the opinion that no new funds should be allocated to making further investments unless they are derived out of the profits from the Asset Trading division and in any event, should only be allocated to investments of strategic importance. An example of a strategic investment would be to use the profits to exercise warrants that are in the money. Profits generated by the Asset Trading division will be primarily allocated towards financing existing Metal Projects.

In Summation:

Metal Tiger has, in the Board’s opinion, two unique and highly valuable project development interests in Botswana and Thailand, and a highly promising exploration interest in Spain.

We intend to aggressively pursue the furtherance of our Metal Projects division, and proactively articulate to market the inherent value in each of our interests.

The new Board would like to thank shareholders for their support.

For further information on the Company, visit: www.metaltigerplc.com:

Notes to Editors:

Metal Tiger plc is listed on the London Stock Exchange AIM Market (“AIM”) with the trading code MTR and invests in high potential mineral projects with a precious and strategic metals focus.

The Company’s target is to deliver a very high return for shareholders by investing in significantly undervalued and/or high potential opportunities in the mineral exploration and development sector timed to coincide, where possible, with a cyclical recovery in the exploration and mining markets. The Company’s key strategic objective is to ensure the distribution to shareholders of major returns achieved from disposals.

Metal Tiger’s Metal Projects Division is focused on the development of its key project interests in Botswana, Spain and Thailand. In Botswana Metal Tiger has a growing interest in the large and highly prospective Kalahari copper/silver belt. In Spain Metal Tiger the Company has tungsten and gold interests in the highly mineralised Extremadura region. In Thailand Metal Tiger has expanding interests over licences, applications and critical historical data covering antimony, copper, gold, silver, lead and zinc opportunities.

The Company has access to a diverse pipeline of new opportunities focused on the natural resource sector including physical resource projects, new natural resource centred technologies and resource sector related fintech opportunities. Pipeline projects deemed commercially viable may be undertaken by Metal Tiger or by an ISDX or AIM partner with whom the Company is engaged.

Metal Tiger also has an Asset Trading Division that holds various financial instruments for trading purposes including equities, warrants and royalty income. The aim of the division is to generate profits to reinvest into the Company’s project based activities.

Note: This announcement contains inside information which is disclosed in accordance with the Market Abuse Regulation.

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