Issue of Equity, Appointment of Joint Broker & AGM

RNS Number : 5203P

Strategic Minerals PLC

08 June 2015

 

8 June 2014

Strategic Minerals plc

("Strategic Minerals" or the "Company")

Issue of Equity, Appointment of Joint Broker, Annual General Meeting  

and Total Voting Rights

Issue of equity

Strategic Minerals Plc (AIM: SML; USOTC: SMCDY), the diversified mineral development and production company, is pleased to announce that it has conditionally raised £1,000,000 before expenses through the placing of 166,666,667 ordinary shares of 0.1p each (the "Placing Shares") at an issue price of 0.6p per Placing Share (the "Placing Price"). The Placing has been arranged by Cornhill Capital Limited ("Cornhill").  The net proceeds of the Placing, which are expected to be £950,000, will be used primarily for the acquisition and development of the Tatu coal mine project. 

The Placing Shares will be issued in two tranches as follows:

-     £492,000 has been raised by the placing of 82,000,000 Placing Shares (the "Tranche 1 Shares").  The Tranche 1 Shares have been issued within the Company's existing share authorities.  Application will be made for the Tranche 1 Shares to be admitted to trading on AIM, which is expected to occur on or around 12 June 2015 ("Admission").  On their admission to trading on AIM, the Tranche 1 Shares will represent approximately 10.2 per cent. of the issued ordinary share capital of the Company, as enlarged by the issue of the Tranche 1 Shares.

-     £508,000 has been conditionally raised by the placing of 84,666,667 Placing Shares (the "Tranche 2 Shares"), subject to the directors being authorised by shareholders to allot and disapply pre-emption rights in relation to the Tranche 2 Shares at the Company's annual general meeting ("AGM"), further details of which are set out below. Application will be made for the Tranche 2 Shares to be admitted to trading on AIM, which is expected to occur on or around 3 July 2015.  On their admission to trading on AIM, the Tranche 2 Shares will represent approximately 9.5 per cent. of the issued ordinary share capital of the Company, as enlarged by the issue of the Tranche 1 and Tranche 2 Shares, with the Tranche 1 Shares then representing approximately 9.2 per cent. of the issued ordinary share capital.  Accordingly, the Placing Shares will represent approximately 18.7 per cent. of the issued ordinary share capital of the Company as enlarged by the issue of all the Placing Shares. 

The Company is looking at a number of options to fund the full development of the Tatu project such as prepayments on offtake, contractor support and equipment financing. The Company looks forward to providing further announcements in due course.

Grant of Warrants

As part of the fundraising, the Company will grant to Cornhill a total of 8,333,333 warrants.  Each warrant allows Cornhill to subscribe for one ordinary share of 0.1p each in the Company at the Placing Price (the "Warrants").  The Options are exercisable for 36 months and represent approximately 0.9% per cent. of the issued share capital on Admission.

Notice of AGM

The Company has today posted to shareholders a notice of the Company's AGM, to be held at 2 pm. on 02 July 2015 at the offices of BDO UK, 55 Baker Street, London, W1U 7EU. A copy of the AGM notice is also available on the Company's website, www.strategicminerals.net.

Total voting rights

Following the issue of the Tranche 1 Shares, the Company will have 805,825,560 ordinary shares of 0.1p each in issue, with one voting right each. The Company does not hold any ordinary shares in treasury. Therefore the total number of ordinary shares and voting rights in the Company will be 805,825,560 from Admission. This figure may be used by shareholders in the Company as the denominator for the calculations by which they will determine if they are required to notify their interest in, or a change to their interest in, the share capital of the Company under the FCA's Disclosure and Transparency Rules.

Appointment of Joint Broker

Strategic Minerals also announces the appointment of Cornhill as joint broker to the Company.

Chairman of Strategic Minerals, Mr John Peters, commented:  "The Placing is particularly pleasing as it was completed at close to market price for Strategic Minerals stock at the time it was placed. Further, it represents a significant step forward in the transformation of the Company, as we believe it provides sufficient capital to complete the acquisition of the Tatu coal mine project in the North Island of New Zealand, subject to our due diligence, as well as providing funds towards commencing operations at the mine.

"The expected future cash flows from this project once fully operational, when combined with the existing Cobre asset, are expected to support the long term sustainability of Strategic Minerals. The Company continues to look to source additional expansion projects and we look forward to updating shareholders with our progress."

For further information, please contact:

Strategic Minerals plc John Peters Managing Director	[phone]
Allenby Capital Limited Nominated Adviser and Joint Broker Jeremy Porter James Reeve	[phone]
Cornhill Capital Limited Joint Broker James Sheehan Colin Rowbury	[phone]
Yellow Jersey PR Financial PR Dominic Barretto Kelsey Traynor	[phone]

Notes to Editors

Strategic Minerals plc is an AIM quoted, diversified mineral development and production company, with projects in the United States of America and New Zealand. The Company is focused on acquiring and developing cash generative, high quality projects which meet local market demand for commodities. 

In September 2011, the Strategic Minerals purchased, its first cash generating assets, the Cobre magnetite tailings dam project in New Mexico, USA which it brought into production in 2014 and which continues to provide a revenue stream for the Company. The portfolio was expanded in March 2015 with the acquisition of the Tatu Coal Mine located in North Island, New Zealand. Strategic Minerals is now developing this project with the expectation it will make its first thermal coal sales by H1 2016.

In addition, the Company also has an exploration iron ore project in Queensland, Australia. 

 

END

 

 

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