Barruecopardo Progress Update

RNS Number : 7367R

Ormonde Mining PLC

22 November 2012

 

22 November 2012

Ormonde Mining plc

("Ormonde" or "the Company")

Barruecopardo Progress Update

The Board of Ormonde is pleased to provide an interim update on progress in connection with permitting and capital funding of its flagship Barruecopardo Tungsten Project in Salamanca, Spain ("Barruecopardo" or the "Project").  This follows submission of the final permitting documentation to the Provincial and Regional Governments at the end of July 2012.

Main Points

·     Permitting process is proceeding well, with public and private presentations undertaken by Saloro SLU ("Saloro"), Ormonde's wholly-owned subsidiary through which Barruecopardo is held, to various groups and public bodies to inform on the proposed new mining operation at Barruecopardo.

·     Strengthening of the Saloro management team is underway including the identification of a suitable candidate for company President.

·     Debt funding activities now proceeding to term sheet stage with a number of financial institutions. 

·     Joint venture negotiations also continuing following receipt of indicative offers from potential industry partners. Relationships with off-takers have been maintained but final contracts will await completion of capital funding arrangements.

·     Land acquisition activities are proceeding based upon rental agreements incorporating a right to purchase, following a separate agreement with the local council.

·     The Company continues to work towards plant commissioning in Q4 2013, with attainment of this schedule predicated on the securing of project financing, the granting of the mining concession and the agreed acquisition of the outstanding land plots.

·     On technical matters, the preliminary engineering design work on the comminution and gravity-jig circuits has been completed with this portion of the process flowsheet now ready for detailed layout.

Kerr Anderson, Ormonde's Managing Director, commented:

"We have been focussing our efforts on communicating our proposals for the Barruecopardo Tungsten Project at both local and provincial levels whilst the permitting documentation is processed by the relevant government departments.  In parallel, the robust economics of the Project provides the Company with good optionality, and we have made significant progress in relation to capital funding, having now received indicative offers from potential joint venture partners, and with debt funding activities proceeding to term sheet stage with a number of financial institutions."

Detail

Following submission of the final permitting documents to the Junta de Castilla y Leon at the end of July 2012, several (on-going) public and private presentations have been made by Ormonde's wholly-owned subsidiary Saloro (the company which is developing the Project), to community groups, public bodies and the media, to inform on the proposed new mining operation at Barruecopardo.  These presentations are being carried out at both local and provincial level. 

A restructuring of Saloro from a sole administrator company to a company governed by a Board of Directors will be implemented shortly. In addition, the Saloro management team is being strengthened as it moves towards the development stage of the Project, and sourcing of a suitable candidate for company President is now underway.

Debt funding activities are now proceeding to term sheets stage with a number of financial institutions. This will lead on to the selection of the preferred debt funding option for the Project.  In addition, negotiations with potential joint venture parties continue, following the receipt of indicative offers.  Relationships with potential offtake parties are being maintained, however the Company will not conclude any offtake agreement until a full funding package for the Project has been finalised.

Saloro is continuing with its land acquisition programme which is based upon a rental agreement with a right of purchase following a separate agreement with the local council.  These acquisition activities will proceed in conjunction with the permitting process; however, if it is not possible to conclude lease deals on all of the required plots by the time the mining concession is granted, Spanish law provides for a compulsory acquisition process through a well-established procedure.

The preliminary engineering design work on the comminution and gravity-jig circuits has been completed with this portion of the process flowsheet now ready for detailed layout.  This detailed layout is included in the Projects capital cost estimate of €48.5 million as reported in the results of the Definitive Feasibility Study announced in February 2012.

Kerr Anderson PhD EurGeolPGeo, Managing Director of Ormonde, and a qualified person as defined in the Note for Mining, Oil and Gas Companies, June 2009, of the London Stock Exchange, has reviewed and approved the technical information contained in this announcement.

A glossary explaining technical terms contained in this announcement can be found at www.ormondemining.com/en/investors/technical_glossary.

For more information please visit www.ormondemining.com or follow Ormonde on Twitter https://twitter.com/ormondemining or Linkedin http://www.linkedin.com/company/ormonde-mining-plc

Enquiries to:

Ormonde Mining plc

Kerr Anderson, Managing Director  Tel: [phone]

Bankside Consultants

Simon Rothschild  Tel: [phone]   Mob: [phone]

Murray Consultants

Ed Micheau  Tel: [phone]  Mob: [phone]

Davy (Nomad / ESM Adviser)

Eugenée Mulhern / Roland French  Tel: [phone]

ENDS

About Ormonde

Ormonde Mining Plc is admitted to trading on the AIM market in London and the ESM market in Dublin. Ormonde is a mineral development and exploration company focused on Spain (Ticker: ORM).

 

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