TIDMKEFI
RNS Number : 7133Z
Kefi Minerals plc
15 December 2014
15 December 2014
KEFI Minerals plc.
("KEFI" or the "Company")
Chairman's General Meeting Statement
KEFI Minerals (AIM: KEFI), an emerging gold miner with projects
in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Democratic Republic of Ethiopia,
announces that at today's General Meeting, His Excellency Mr Norman
Ling, Chairman for the Meeting, will make the following
statement:
Chairman's Statement:
"I am delighted to be representing the Board of Directors and
deputising for our Chairman, Harry Anagnostaras-Adams, who is away
on business matters and apologises for not being here. First, let
me give you the significant developments over the past six months
and then I will touch upon the Board's expectations over the next
six months.
"KEFI has continued to make tremendous progress since the Annual
General Meeting (the "AGM") on 23 June 2014 and is on target to
start producing gold in 2017.
"Over the past six months, we have had independent affirmation
of our development plans at Tulu Kapi in Ethiopia and re-triggered
the Mining Licence Application. You will have read about our
updated community resettlement plan and our assembly of the
appropriate set of specialist banks with whom we agreed indicative
project finance terms. The team has to be congratulated, as this
was no mean feat in today's tough capital market, as was our
arrangement of an equity placing which introduced a third
cornerstone institutional investor to our Company. We now have a
line-up of carefully selected and arranged high-quality equity and
debt institutions, all of whom have joined with the explicit
intention of supporting the business plan, as laid out over the
past year. This gives the Board the confidence that development
activities at Tulu Kapi will commence in 2015.
"Now, let me say a few words about our Jibal Qutman project in
Saudi Arabia. Whilst the focus has rightly been on Tulu Kapi in
Ethiopia, we have not ignored Jibal Qutman and continue to make
solid progress there too. Just this morning, we announced a
significant step forward there. As a result of continued
exploration, we reported a 30% increase in total mineral resources
and commencement of detailed testing for a potential heap leach
style operational development. The benefits of heap leach style
developments are that they are cheaper and quicker. If it were
proven to be feasible to do heap leach style development in Jibal
Qutman, it would reduce the capital expenditure required, speed up
the timetable to production and facilitate modular expansion,
should more shallow open pittable deposits continue to be
discovered by our very successful exploration team working closely
together with our JV partner, ARTAR.
"Looking forward at the next six months, we are expecting to
continue to make good progress across a number of important
fronts.
-- In Ethiopia, we are expecting the granting of a mining
licence for Tulu Kapi, the completion of the first phase of
community resettlement, the conclusion of value engineering
initiatives aimed to further reduce capital requirements, the
completion of the definitive feasible study in consultation with
the project financiers and the assembly of final plans for formal
finance commitments around mid-2015.
-- In Saudi Arabia, we expect to advance the mineral resources
and heap leach testing to the point where technical studies could
be updated for a refocused mining licence application to be
submitted. We will then launch the plans for development of a cash
flow to underpin the exploration programs in the Kingdom.
Additionally, we announced recently that we were granted a licence
by the regulatory authorities to explore the Hawiah Licence, which
has been one of our top priority targets for some years. We are
excited about this second major licence in Saudi Arabia and hope to
update you all when we next meet at the Annual General Meeting
towards the middle of the year.
"In conclusion, the Board of Directors considers that the
Company has made significant progress on the ground, in both of its
selected jurisdictions within the under-explored and highly
prospective Arabian-Nubian Shield. We greatly appreciate the
support of our shareholders in, what is undeniably, a very
challenging capital market and we look forward to updating you on
progress made.
"Lastly, on behalf of all at KEFI Minerals, I would like to take
this opportunity to wish all our shareholders and other
stakeholders a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year."
Enquiries:
KEFI Minerals plc
Harry Anagnostaras-Adams (Executive
Chairman) +357 99457843
Jeffrey Rayner (Exploration Director) +90 533 928 1913
SP Angel Corporate Finance LLP (Nominated
Adviser)
Ewan Leggat, Katy Birkin +44 20 3470 0470
Fox-Davies Capital Ltd (Joint Broker)
Oliver Stansfield, Alex Walker +44 207 936 5200
finnCap Ltd (Joint Broker)
Joanna Weaving, Christopher Raggett +44 207 220 0500
Luther Pendragon (Financial PR)
Harry Chathli, Claire Norbury, Ivana
Petkova +44 207 618 9100
Further information can be viewed on KEFI's website at
www.kefi-minerals.com
NOTES TO EDITOR
KEFI Minerals Plc
KEFI is the operator of two advanced gold development projects
within the highly prospective Arabian-Nubian Shield, with an
attributable 2.0Moz (100% of Tulu Kapi's 1.9Moz and 40% of Jibal
Qutman's 0.5Moz) Au Mineral Resources (JORC 2012) plus significant
resource growth potential. KEFI targets that production at these
projects generate cash flows for further exploration and expansion
as warranted, recoupment of development costs and, when
appropriate, dividends to shareholders.
KEFI in Ethiopia
The Tulu Kapi gold project in Western Ethiopia is being rapidly
progressed towards development. In October 2014, KEFI Minerals
reactivated the Mining Licence Application and assembled indicative
project finance terms.
A Definitive Feasibility Study is evaluating construction of a
1.2Mtpa processing plant with estimated annual gold production
86,000 oz at total operating costs of $626/ounce. The planning
parameters for the DFS have already been independently confirmed.
The Company's milestones for 2015 include licencing, resettlement
of affected households, arranging project finance in mid-2015 for
major works to commence in the final quarter of 2015 and production
commissioning at the end of 2016.
The Company has received strong support from the Ethiopian
authorities, who have confirmed their intention to expedite the
processing of the MLA and issue approvals in early 2015.
KEFI Minerals in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
KEFI Minerals has a 40% interest in the G&M and is the
operating partner. G&M holds 2 ELs other than Hawiah and 23
ELAs that cover an area of approximately 1,484km2. ELs are
renewable for up to three years and bestow the exclusive right to
explore and to obtain a 30-year exploitation (mining) lease within
the area.
In 2009, KEFI formed G&M, with Saudi partner ARTAR, to
explore for gold and associated metals in the Arabian Shield. To
date, G&M has conducted preliminary regional reconnaissance and
had five EL's granted. Three have been relinquished after initial
testing.
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has instituted policies to encourage
minerals exploration and development and KEFI Minerals supports
this priority by serving as the technical partner within G&M.
ARTAR also serves this government policy as the major partner in
G&M, which is one of the early movers in the modern resurgence
of the Kingdom's minerals sector.
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
END
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