Update on Direct Nickel Limited

RNS Number : 6509N

Regency Mines PLC

01 October 2012

 

REGENCY MINES PLC

("Regency" or the "Company")

Update on Direct Nickel Limited ("DNi") and DNi Joint Venture

1 October 2012

Regency Mines plc, a mining exploration and mineral investment company with interests in nickel and other minerals in Australia, Africa, and Papua New Guinea is pleased to announce an update on progress at Direct Nickel Limited ("DNi"), a company in which Regency is a shareholder and its joint venture partner in a nickel-cobalt laterite project ("Mambare Project") in Oro Province, Papua New Guinea.

Details of the progress at DNi are given in a Shareholder Update released on the DNi website, http://www.directnickel.com/shareholders-update/ at the end of last week. In so far as that announcement relates to the activities of DNi, the directors of DNi have entire responsibility for it, and statements in that announcement have not been independently verified by Regency. 

Significant developments reported by DNi include a shareholder meeting of Wintech Group Limited ("WTG") on 3^rd October which is expected to approve the Reverse Takeover transaction of DNi with WTG. This will result in DNi becoming a public company with a future plan to list on the ASX when market conditions allow.

DNi also report that the demonstration plant programme at the Australian Minerals Research Centre at CSIRO in Perth is poised, subject to final confirmation of project funding, to begin commissioning during November once a bulk sample from Indonesia arrives.

 The shipping of this 200 tonne sample from PT Antam's Indonesian Bulli deposit on Halmahera Island is reported by DNi to be underway with an estimated timeline through to the start of the demonstration plant operations of sample arrival in Jakarta from Bulli on 1 October 2012, customs clearance in Perth, WA by the end of October, and start of operations during November.

DNi also reports significant progress with its funding agreements, reporting that documentation of a Teck funding agreement is being completed and that a U.K. investment institution has signed a subscription agreement conditional on signature of the Teck funding agreement.

Regency reports that the Value Engineering Study commissioned as the next stage of activity to be carried out under the DNi Joint Venture continues and that it will present various options and suggest optimal paths for development of the Mambare deposit. Meanwhile, as is normal in exploration between programmes, work on the ground at Mambare will be restricted to low-impact follow-up activity and analysis of results pending delineation of the next major field programme. Priority in planning will be given to plans for early work on the geothermal potential of the geothermal licenses.

Regency Chairman Andrew Bell reports: "It is good to hear from our partners of these key milestones starting to be achieved. While key for them, they are also significant for usboth as DNi's partners in this technology at Mambare and as shareholders in DNi itself".

Enquiries: Andrew Bell 020 7402 4580 or    07766 474849 Regency Mines plc Chairman Sandra Spencer 020 7402 4580 or 07757 660 798 Regency Mines plc Public and Investor Relations Gerry Beaney/ Daniela Amihood 020 7383 5100 Grant Thornton Corporate Finance Nominated Adviser Nick Emerson 01483 413500 Simple Investments Ltd Broker

Updates on the Company's activities are regularly posted on its website, www.regency-mines.com.

 

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