REG - Alba Mineral Resrcs. - Share Placing & Retail Offer; Rare Earth Project

Alba Mineral ResourcesAnnouncement

06/11/2024 08:00

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RNS Number : 1496L  Alba Mineral Resources PLC  06 November 2024

Alba Mineral Resources Plc / EPIC: ALBA / Market: AIM / Sector: Mining

6 November 2024

Alba Mineral Resources plc

 

("Alba" or "the Company")

 

Share Placing and Retail Offer;

Option over Swedish Rare Earth Project

 

Alba Mineral Resources plc (AIM: ALBA) is pleased to announce that it has
raised £300,000 (before expenses) in a share placing involving the
issue of 1,000,000,000 new ordinary shares at a price of 0.03 pence per
ordinary share (the "Issue Price") (the "Placing"), conditional on the
admission of such new ordinary shares to trading on AIM. CMC Markets UK Plc,
trading as CMC CapX, acted as the Company's sole placing agent in respect of
the Placing.

 

The Company also provides details in this announcement of a proposed retail
offer via CMC CapX (the "Retail Offer").

 

The Company is also delighted to announce that it has acquired an option to
earn into the Finnsbo Rare Earth Project in Sweden.

 

Highlights

 

·      Share placing to raise £300,000 (before expenses) at 0.03p per
share.

 

·      Alba also announces a retail offer to raise up a further
£100,000 (which may be increased subject to demand) at 0.03p per share, to
provide existing retail shareholders in the Company with an opportunity to
participate in the fundraising.

 

·      Option acquired by Alba to earn into the Finnsbo Rare Earth
Project in east Sweden.

 

Share Placing

 

The proceeds from the Placing announced today to raise £300,000 (before
expenses), together with any additional funds raised from the Retail Offer
(further described below), are intended to be used to continue the Company's
value-enhancing activities across the Company's portfolio, including:

1.       Clogau Gold Mine, Wales

•       Continuing the blasting and bulk sampling programme at the
Llechfraith Target, our primary gold development target at the Clogau Gold
Mine.

 

•       Upgrade works in respect of our processing plant to be able to
process the gold content from the circa 300 tonnes of ore expected to be
extracted from the current blasting programme.

 

•       The production and marketing of pure gold coins and other
products from the gold extracted from the above exercise.

2.       Option over Finnsbo Rare Earth project in Sweden

•       Paying option fee, carrying out site visit and confirmatory
due diligence and, subject to exercise of the option, conducting an initial
field work programme.

3.       Other project opportunities

•       The Company is also in negotiations to acquire an option to
earn into a portfolio of gold licences in East Africa which, if signed, will
require the payment of an option fee (expected to be circa US$20k), the
carrying out of a site visit and confirmatory due diligence. There is no
certainty that these negotiations will result in the signing of an option
agreement or, if it does, that Alba will subsequently exercise the option and
commit to an expenditure programme on the projects.

 4.      General working capital purposes.

 

Finnsbo Rare Earth Project, Sweden

 

The Finnsbo Project is set in the historic magnetite mining district of
eastern Bergslagen, in eastern Sweden in the province of Uppland, north of
Stockholm (see Figure 1). The Project lies 15km north of the famous 540 yr old
Dannemora magnetite mine.

 

Finnsbo lies within the southern fringes of a major structural zone, the
regionally extensive high strain ductile Forsmark Deformation Zone (FDZ) (see
Figure 2).  This ore province has produced some of Europe's most significant
volcanogenic massive sulphide (or VMS) ore deposits such as the currently
operating zinc mines Garpenberg and Zinkgruvan.

 

Most workings on the Finnsbo licence area are Victorian-aged artisanal pits
for magnetite and copper. The most significant working is Bredasen where there
is a cluster of 30-40m deep vertical shafts.

 

Sampling by the present owners of historic blast material on surface at two
separate blast sites, called Pop 1 and Pop 2, has returned very interesting
rare earths assays at Pop 2 of up to 3.5% Total Rare Earth Oxides (TREO) (with
overall grades ranging from 0.5% to 3.5% TREO), with 37-38% of the TREO in
each case being made up of high-value NdPrDy
(neodymium-praseodymium-dysprosium) oxides, as well as gold and copper grades
of up to 27g/t (with overall grades ranging from 7 to 27g/t) and 2.9% (with
overall grades ranging from 0.9% to 2.9%) respectively.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 1: Location map. Finnsbo Project shown in green. Insert map shows the
Project's location in eastern Sweden (circled).

 

 

 

 

Figure 2: Swedish Geological Survey map of historic workings and showing major
FDZ structural trend running through the Finnsbo licence (outlined in red).

 

The principal terms of the option agreement signed with the owners of the
Finnsbo Project ("Finnsbo") are as follows:

·      Option fee: £10k (payable 50% in cash, 50% in Alba shares).

·      Exclusivity period: 45 days for Alba to carry out confirmatory
due diligence.

·      If Alba exercises the option, on Completion of the formal
transaction documents Alba will pay the owners £15k (50% in cash, 50% in Alba
shares).

·      Alba will then have that right to earn into the Finnsbo Project
in stages, as follows:

o  At Stage 1 (12-month period): by spending £100k on exploration for a 25%
interest in the Project;

o  At Stage 2 (a further 24-month period): by paying the owners £50k in cash
or Alba shares and spending a further £200k for a further 26% interest in the
Project (for a total 51% interest); and

o  At Stage 3 (a further 36-month period), by spending £350k for a further
29% interest (for a total 80% interest).

·      Thereafter, Alba has the option to buy the remaining 20% interest
for £500k.

·      Once Alba stops sole funding, the parties will joint fund or
dilute in accordance with a customary dilution formula.  If a party's
interest reduces below 10pc, its interest will convert to a 1% Net Smelter
Return royalty.

·      Alba is also being granted a 12-month option over two other
Swedish projects owned by the same owners as Finnsbo, on the same terms as
those applying to Finnsbo.

 

The owners of the Finnsbo Project have a well-established technical team based
in Sweden which is available to continue to support field exploration
activities.  An initial site visit by the Alba team is planned for the coming
days. Further updates will be released as appropriate during the due diligence
period.

 

George Frangeskides, Alba's Executive Chairman, commented: "We are delighted
to have secured this option over a very interesting rare earth prospect in
Sweden. We have long flagged that we are open to other value-enhancing project
acquisitions and investments.  The reasonable earn-in terms, and the fact
that the owners of the project have a well-established technical team based in
Sweden which can continue to support work activities on the ground, make this
an attractive proposition which complements, and is not expected to detract
from, the Company's continued focus on the roll-out of blasting and
development operations at the Clogau Gold Mine in Wales."

 

Retail Offer

In addition to the Placing, it is proposed that there will be a separate
conditional retail offer to existing shareholders via CMC CapX to raise up to
approximately £100,000 (before expenses) at the Issue Price (the "Retail
Offer", and together with the Placing, the "Fundraise"), to provide existing
retail shareholders in the Company with an opportunity to participate in the
Fundraise. A separate announcement will be made shortly by the Company
regarding the Retail Offer and its terms. The total amount which can be raised
through the retail offer may be increased above the amount stated above,
subject to demand.

Those investors who subscribe for new Ordinary Shares pursuant to the Retail
Offer (the "Retail Shares") will do so pursuant to the terms and conditions of
the Retail Offer contained in that announcement.

Admission to AIM

 

Application will be made for the new ordinary shares to be admitted to trading
on AIM ("Admission"). It is expected that Admission of the new ordinary shares
will become effective at 8.00 a.m. on or around 12 November 2024. The new
ordinary shares will be issued credited as fully paid and will rank in full
for all dividends and other distributions declared, made or paid after
Admission and will otherwise rank on Admission pari passu in all respects
with the existing ordinary shares.

 

Total Voting Rights

 

Following Admission, the total number of ordinary shares in issue will be
10,736,939,266. The Company does not hold any ordinary shares in treasury.
Therefore, the total number of ordinary shares with voting rights will be
10,736,939,266. 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 Financial Conduct Authority's
Disclosure and Transparency Rules.

 

 

This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of the UK
Market Abuse Regulation and the Directors of the Company are responsible for
the release of this announcement.

 

Forward Looking Statements

 

This announcement contains forward-looking statements relating to expected or
anticipated future events and anticipated results that are forward-looking in
nature and, as a result, are subject to certain risks and uncertainties, such
as general economic, market and business conditions, competition for qualified
staff, the regulatory process and actions, technical issues, new legislation,
uncertainties resulting from potential delays or changes in plans,
uncertainties resulting from working in a new political jurisdiction,
uncertainties regarding the results of exploration, uncertainties regarding
the timing and granting of prospecting rights, uncertainties regarding the
timing and granting of regulatory and other third party consents and
approvals, uncertainties regarding the Company's or any third party's ability
to execute and implement future plans, and the occurrence of unexpected
events.  Actual results achieved may vary from the information provided
herein as a result of numerous known and unknown risks and uncertainties and
other factors.

 

**ENDS**

 

 For further information, please visit www.albamineralresources.com
(http://www.albamineralresources.com/)  or contact:

 Alba Mineral Resources plc                 +44 20 3950 0725

 George Frangeskides, Executive Chairman
 SPARK Advisory Partners Limited (Nomad)    +44 20 3368 3555

 Andrew Emmott
 CMC Markets plc (Broker)                   +44 (0) 20 3003 8632

 Thomas Smith / Douglas Crippen

 

 

 Alba's Projects & Investments
 Projects Operated by Alba                            Location   Ownership
 Clogau (gold)                                        Wales      100%
 Dolgellau Gold Exploration (gold)                    Wales      100%
 Gwynfynydd (gold)                                    Wales      100%
 Investments Held by Alba                             Location   Ownership
 GreenRoc Strategic Materials Plc (graphite - anode)  Greenland  34.34%
 Horse Hill (oil)                                     England    11.765%

 

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