6 Feb 2017 07:00
REGENCY MINES PLC
("Regency" or the "Company")
Rosa Mine - Update
Further Coal Investment
6 February 2017
Regency Mines Plc announces, further to the announcement of 10th January 2017, progress at Carbon Minerals Corporation's Rosa metallurgical coal mine ("CMC" and "Rosa") located in Alabama, United States of America, in the Warrior Coal Basin. Regency owns 20% of CMC.
Regency also announces an agreement to invest $150,000 for a 20% shareholding of Vali Carbon Corporation ("VCC"), a new Delaware company set up to pursue metallurgical coal investments in the Appalachians.
Key Highlights:
· Progress continues on schedule at Rosa towards recommencing coal sales in Q1 2017;
· Contract washing of coal in the preparation plant will continue meanwhile;
· The auger drill is on site and a highwall miner has been sourced and is being delivered, which will enable increased production levels and increase volumes of mineable coal;
· New joint venture company Vali Carbon Corporation has been set up to develop metallurgical coal production at other sites in the Appalachians.
Andrew Bell, Chairman of Regency Mines, comments: "We believe that we are in the right commodity in the right place at the right time. Metallurgical coal had already seen a sharp recovery from what we believe were extreme cyclical lows at the beginning of 2016, and the new U.S. administration has already permitted new pipeline construction and is committed to heavy infrastructure spending. We have identified with our partners a range of opportunities to ramp up production and diversify our sources of saleable coal.
At Rosa, the sourcing of a suitable highwall mining machine enables us to plan for tripling the depth of penetration beyond that envisaged in the Reserve report, and potentially tripling the rate of production."
Investment in Vali Carbon Corporation
Regency has agreed with UK Carbon Resolutions Limited ("UKCR"), a company controlled by coal entrepreneur Stephen Moscicki, to invest $150,000 in VCC for a 20% shareholding. The purpose of VCC is to put together and bring into production metallurgical coal projects in the Appalachian coal belt in the Eastern United States. The Appalachians have long been one of the world's largest sources of coal, and some areas contain high quality metallurgical coals.
The co-venturers in VCC have agreed within three weeks to sign a definitive shareholders' agreement with normal shareholder protections and to set an agreed budget for the coming year. Regency has a put right to UKCR should this not occur.
This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of EU Regulation 596/2014.
For further information, please contact:
Andrew Bell 0207 747 9960 Chairman Regency Mines Plc
Scott Kaintz 0207 747 9960 Executive Director Regency Mines Plc
Roland Cornish/Rosalind Hill Abrahams 0207 628 3396 NOMAD Beaumont Cornish Limited
Jason Robertson 0129 351 7744 Broker Dowgate Capital Stockbrokers Ltd.