Placing and Admission to AIM

18 Dec 2006 07:00

Kefi Minerals plc18 December 2006 18 December 2006 KEFI Minerals Plc Placing and Admission to AIM KEFI Minerals Plc ("KEFI" or the "Company"), the gold and copper exploration company with projects in Turkey and Bulgaria, announces the commencement of trading on AIM (Code "KEFI") following the successful placing of 46,666,667 Placing Shares at 3p to raise £1.4 million. Highlights •The Company's market capitalisation at the placing price of 3p per share is £2.66 million; •Australian institutional shareholder Direct Portfolio Services Limited has committed to subscribing an additional £50,000 in April 2007; •KEFI holds exploration licences in Turkey and Bulgaria; •Ownership of database containing information about approximately 100 prospective sites in Turkey; •Turkey and Bulgaria have established mining backgrounds; •Strong management with highly demonstrable track records; •KEFI able to use original parent company EMED Mining Public Limited's ("EMED") systems and personnel, at cost; and •Mining opportunities identified by EMED in Bulgaria or Turkey will be referred to KEFI. WH Ireland Limited acted as Broker and as Nominated Adviser to KEFI. Key Statistics Placing Price 3p Existing Ordinary Shares 42,000,000 Number of Placing Shares 46,666,667 Enlarged Share Capital 88,666,667 Percentage of Enlarged Share Capital attributable to thePlacing 52.6% Market Capitalisation of the Company at the Placing Price on Admission £2.66 million Gross Proceeds of the Placing £1.4 million Estimated Net Proceeds of the Placing Receivable by the Company £1.0 million The major shareholders in KEFI following the Placing are EMED Mining (38.7%), Starvest Plc (20.7%) and Directors, Management and their families (9.8%). In addition to the Placing, institutional shareholder Direct Portfolio Services Limited has committed to subscribing an additional £50,000 in April 2007 for 1,666,667 new ordinary shares at 3p, to raise its holding to 3.7%. KEFI's Managing Director, Jeff Rayner, said: "We look forward to KEFI's AIM float and believe it will be instrumental in raising the profile of the KEFI group. We are confident that we will be able to exploit KEFI's assets to their fullest potential." -Ends- Enquiries KEFI Minerals Plc Tel: +905 36963 0111Jeffrey Rayner +357 9920 6404 Bishopsgate Communications Ltd. Tel: 020 7562 3350Maxine BarnesNick Rome WH Ireland Limited Tel: 0161 832 2174Laurie BeeversKaty Mitchell Notes to Editors: About KEFI Minerals Plc (AIM Code: KEFI) KEFI GEOGRAPHIC FOCUS Turkey has an established historical mining background with both large and smallscale deposits of various commodities being successfully identified anddeveloped, predominantly by local entities. Active exploration and developmentby foreign mining companies in modern times has been limited. The directors ofKEFI believe that recent gold discoveries and developments in Turkey arepositive indicators of the mineral wealth of the known Tethyan metallogenic beltand the commitment of the Turkish Government towards supporting and expandingthe mining industry. Bulgaria also has a long tradition of mining for base metals and preciousmetals, and has a number of current operating mines. KEFI COMPANY HISTORY KEFI was formed on 24 October 2006 for the purposes of holding EMED Mining'sexploration interests in Turkey and Bulgaria with a view to creating shareholdervalue through the discovery and exploitation of gold and copper deposits. In November 2006, KEFI completed the acquisition of EMED Mining's Turkish andBulgarian exploration interests through the acquisition of EMED Mining'ssubsidiary Mediterranean Minerals (Bulgaria) EOOD ("MMB") which owns the entireissued share capital of Dogu Akdeniz Mineralleri Sanayi ve Ticaret LimitedSirketi. In addition, KEFI acquired a database of mining information relating toTurkey. The directors of KEFI believe they will be able to develop and realisethe potential of these exploration assets more effectively than was possiblewithin EMED Mining. Since December 2004, KEFI has been funded by loans from EMED Mining ofapproximately £350,000 and by equity investment totaling £120,000. Out of theloans provided by EMED Mining, £25,000 has been waived and £300,000 has beenassigned to KEFI as part of the arrangements relating to the acquisition of MMBby KEFI. THE KEFI BUSINESS KEFI and its subsidiaries' (the "Group") exploration assets comprise explorationlicences in Turkey and Bulgaria and the ownership of a database containinginformation about further prospective sites in Turkey. In Turkey, the Group has two projects. It holds fifteen exploration licences inone project covering an approximate area of 253 square kilometres onpredominantly state forestry land in the Artvin province of north-eastern Turkey(the "Artvin Project"). It also holds four exploration licences in the secondproject, covering an approximate area of 68 square kilometres on predominantlyfarming land in the Gumushane province of eastern Turkey (the "GumushaneProject"). In Bulgaria, the Group has one project area comprising one exploration licencecovering an approximate area of 71 square kilometres on predominantly stateforestry land, farming land and rural villages, which is located approximately150 kilometres south of Sofia (the "Lehovo Project"). The Group also holds the rights to a proprietary database which containsinformation about approximately 100 further prospective sites in Turkey. TheGroup has begun to exploit this information in order to provide a pipeline ofnew exploration targets. EMED Mining has agreed, pursuant to an Agreement with KEFI, that any miningopportunities identified by EMED Mining which are in Bulgaria or Turkey will bereferred to KEFI for the Board's consideration. In addition, pursuant to theterms of a services agreement between the two companies (the "ServicesAgreement"), EMED Mining's technical and administrative systems and personnelare available for use by KEFI on a cost-recovery basis. THE KEFI BOARD • Arisitidis Eleftherios Anagnostaras-Adams, Non-Executive Chairman Arisitidis Anagnostaras-Adams (BComm, MBA) is currently managing director ofAIM-listed EMED Mining Public Limited. He was formerly managing director of ASXand AIM-listed Gympie Gold Limited, deputy chairman of Australian Gold Council,executive director of investment company Pilatus Capital Limited and generalmanager of investment company Clayton Robard Limited and Citicorp CapitalInvestors.. • Jeffrey Guy Rayner, Managing Director Jeffrey Rayner is a geologist (BSc Hons) with 20 years' experience in goldexploration and mining in Australia, Europe and Asia. He joined EMED in 2006 andhas managed its Eastern European projects, resulting in the early drilldiscovery of the Biely Vrch gold deposit in Central Slovakia, until he became adirector of KEFI in November 2006. • Ian Rutherford Plimer, Non-Executive Deputy Chairman Ian Plimer is the inaugural professor of Mining Geology at the University ofAdelaide. Professor Plimer and John Nethery predicted the location of, and founda number of, epithermal gold deposits in Greece and Turkey. Ian Plimer has beena director of CBH Resources Ltd. (ASX:CBH) since 1998 during which time it grewfrom A$2 million market capitalisation to a significant zinc-lead-silverproducer with a A$700 million market capitalisation. • John Edward Leach, Finance Director Non-Executive Director John Leach is executive chairman of Resource Mining Corporation Limited, alisted Australian company (ASX:RMI) with iron ore interests in Western Australiaand nickel interests in Papua New Guinea. He is also the chief financial officerof EMED. Mr Leach is contracted to KEFI pursuant to the terms of the ServicesAgreement. The KEFI Minerals website www.kefi-minerals.com is under construction. In themeantime, information on KEFI can be viewed on www.emed-mining.com. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange