REG - Bluebird Mining Vnt. - Funding

Bluebird Mining VenturesAnnouncement

30/09/2024 07:00

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RNS Number : 1957G  Bluebird Mining Ventures Limited  30 September 2024

Bluebird Mining Ventures Ltd / EPIC: BMV.L / Market: FTSE / Sector: Mining

30 September 2024

Bluebird Mining Ventures Ltd

('Bluebird' or 'the Company')

 

Funding

 

Financing structure agreed with supportive shareholder & concurrent equity
offering to existing shareholders

 

Bluebird Mining Ventures Ltd, a gold project development company, is pleased
to announce that Catalyse Capital Ltd ('Catalyse'), a long running and
supportive shareholder of Bluebird, and nominated co investees (together 'the
Parties'), have entered into a binding term sheet to provide a loan facility
of up to £350,000 to the Company to support its mine development activities
in South Korea and the Philippines.  Additionally, the Board and certain
advisors have agreed to convert fees outstanding into equity of the Company,
underlining their support for Bluebird and belief in the underlying value of
the project portfolio.

 

Bluebird has a Joint Venture development model in place with local in-country
partners in South Korea and the Philippines, providing c.US$9 million to
advance its high-grade gold mines to production, providing a free carry for
the Company.  With the current price of its shares trading at what the Board
believes to be a material disconnect to the Company's fundamental value, the
Company has chosen to implement a loan agreement with supportive shareholders
as the most effective and non-dilutive financing option.

 

Proposed Loan

Under the terms of the Loan, Catalyse and nominated co investees are providing
an unsecured loan of up to £350,000 to Bluebird.  Concurrently with this
funding, the Company is also conducting an equity raise ("the Placing"), which
is anticipated to commence on 30 September 2024 at a price of 1p per share
through a book building exercise that will conclude on 4 October 2024. The
Placing has an attached one-for-one warrant with an exercise price of 1.25p
per share and a 12 month life.  These warrants carry an accelerator clause
whereby, if the 10 day Volume Weighted Average Price (VWAP) is above 1.5p per
share for 10 consecutive days, then the holder must either exercise the
warrant or it becomes void.  Any net cash sums raised in the Placing will be
netted on a pro rata basis against the loan capital to be drawn, reducing the
total loan commitment.

 

Board Participation in Equity Raise

Illustrating their belief in Bluebird's materially undervalued status, the
current Board and other advisors are converting their total fee accruals into
equity on the same terms as the Placing, full details of which will be
announced in the results of the Placing and the associated equity issuance.

 

Loan Terms

The Loan will be disbursed in 12 equal monthly tranches commencing on 10
October 2024.  It will mature on 1 Dec 2025 (the Repayment Date), carry a
fixed coupon of 15% on each drawn sum and is payable on the Repayment Date.

 

As part of the Loan, 37.5 million warrants ("Underwriter Warrants") are being
issued by Bluebird to Catalyse and co-investees, the terms being a life of 3
years from 1 October 2024 with an exercise price of 1.5p per share. Should the
warrants be exercised in whole or part during the term of the Loan (at the
sole discretion of Catalyse and the nominated investees), it is agreed between
the Parties and Bluebird that the warrant payment proceeds will not be called
for by the Company but shall instead be netted against the repayment of the
pro rata drawn Loan.

 

Broker Option/Placing participation

The Company plans to extend an opportunity to current shareholders, via the
Winterflood Retail Access Platform ("WRAP"), to participate in the Placing
element of the Funding on the same terms as the Board.  The Company will
provide further details regarding the WRAP offer shortly.  Shareholders can
also contact the Company's broker Si Capital, whose details are below.
Shareholders can view the Company's most recent presentation via the following
link.

 

https://bluebirdmv.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Investor-Meet-Presentaion-June-24.pdf
(https://bluebirdmv.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Investor-Meet-Presentaion-June-24.pdf)

 

Bluebird Executive Director and Interim CEO Aidan Bishop said, "Catalyse has
been a long-standing supporter of Bluebird and we welcome this loan agreement
as a de facto underwriting of the current equity value, to provide ongoing
working capital. The loan structure allows for us to receive capital without
having to utilise the equity capital markets, where we believe a potential
funding would be at a significant discount to the current price and therefore
unnecessarily dilutive.  Furthermore, we believe that the current share price
is presently not reflecting the material progress we have made in recent
months. This includes the signing of two farm ins for our high-grade Korean
gold mines, providing a further US$7million in project development capital and
the implementation of a reduced cost structure.

 

"We now have three gold projects with c. US$9mm funding committed from our
local JV partners who recognise the potential of the assets. The strategy
remains to develop the portfolio to production, with the aim of becoming a
producing entity with a long-term cumulative production target in excess of
100,000 oz Au per annum. We would like to thank Catalyse for their continued
support and are delighted to work with all our shareholders in a manner that
is not value destructive, to finance the Company through to expected initial
production from our Korean assets. We hope that progress on the ground will
provide a rerating for our stock price for the benefit of all stakeholders and
look forward to updating the market on positive developments as they
materialise."

 

Catalyse Capital said, "We remain a staunch supporter of Bluebird as it
advances its portfolio of high-grade gold projects in South Korea and the
Philippines.  As a large holder of stock and a previous supplier of material
capital, our interests are completely in sync with current shareholders and
the management of Bluebird.  With their JV model in place providing a free
carry on asset development and a reduced cost structure, the loan is to
provide the much reduced working capital needed, in order to fund ongoing
overhead while we await expected developments on the ground to trigger a
re-rating of the stock price over the ensuing months.

 

"As with a number of our other large holdings in the small cap market in
recent months, we are not prepared to see material equity value simply diluted
away through the usual discounted placings, which sadly are all too
commonplace in London that bedevil and undermine the marketplace and so
harming shareholders unnecessarily. We are confident that this funding
facility will allow the equity of Bluebird to follow the same positive
trajectory of our most recent financings in the UK small cap arena, which were
structured on a similar basis."

 

This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of article 7 of
the market abuse regulation EU 596/2014 ("MAR").

 

**ENDS**

 

For further information please visit https://bluebirdmv.com or contact:

Jonathan Morley-Kirk    Bluebird Mining Ventures Ltd     Email:
jmk@bluebirdmv.com (mailto:colin@bluebirdmv.com)

Nick Emerson                  SI Capital
                      Tel: 01483413500

 

About Bluebird

London listed Bluebird Mining Ventures Ltd is focused on developing high
grade, low capex gold projects. With a cumulative estimated 1.8M oz Au across
three projects, including two historic mines in South Korea and a development
project in the Philippines, the Company looks to JV its assets with local
partners to provide free carry structures to advance its assets to production.

 

Bluebird recognised the most effective strategy to develop projects in South
Korea and the Philippines involved adopting a Joint Venture model; by securing
local partners with in-country operational knowledge and investment capital at
the project level, assets can be advanced to production on a de-risked basis.

 

The Company has three JV's providing a cumulative c.US$9m investment: US$5m
for the development of the historic Gubong Gold Mine and US$2m for the Kochang
Gold and Silver Mine, in South Korea and c.US$2m (funding to a production
decision) for the Batangas Gold Project in the Philippines. With committed
development capital at the project level, the Company has free carries to
production/mine construction on all its projects, which reduces its reliance
on the international capital markets.

 

Bluebird continues to provide technical assistance to these projects,
utilising its internationally experienced mining team, which has a track
record of bringing gold projects into production across Southeast Asia.  Both
JV parties recognise each sides competencies and the mutual belief that
together they can bring the projects into production and generate significant
value for all stakeholders. Importantly the management team has personally
invested cUS$2 million into the Company, highlighting their belief in the
quality of the portfolio.

 

Gubong, which was historically the second largest gold mine in South Korea has
9 granted tenements covering c.25 sq km.  Gubong is moderately dipping with 9
veins extending 500m below surface and known to extend at least a further
250m. However, the production opportunity for Bluebird prior to looking at
deepening the mine is the 25 levels already developed with all the remnants
and unmined areas left by the original miners.  The 25 levels extend over
120km in total length which indicates the size of the opportunity. The Korea
Resources Corporation ('KORES') estimated 2.34M tonnes at some 7.3g/t Au
garnered from 57 drill holes over 17,715.3 metres.  With additional sampling,
mapping, pit modelling and grade analysis, plus the fact that Gubong is an
orogenic deposit, which typically have a depth of 2km compared to the current
depth of 500m, the Board believe it has a geological potential of 1 million +
oz Au in-situ, plus an estimated additional 300,000 oz Au from satellite ore
bodies.

 

Kochang is an epithermal vein deposit with parallel vertical ore bodies
covering 8.3 sq km that reportedly produced 110,000 oz of gold and 5.9 million
oz of silver between 1961 and 1975.  Consisting of a gold and silver mine,
there are currently four main veins and several parallel subsidiary veins vein
which have been identified, as well as a newly identified cross-cutting vein.
Historic drilling indicates the veins continue to depth below the current 150m
mine and mapping shows the veins on surface providing potential above and
below the old workings. The veins extend to the NE providing a strike length
of 2.5km with 600m between the two mines not exploited.  There is potential
to expand operations to the southwest/northeast and to depth, as well as
exploit the already mined areas. The total resource potential is between
550,000 and 700,000 tonnes, with a range of grades between 5.2 g/t to 6.6 g/t
gold, and 27.3 g/t to 34.8 g/t silver.  Following the granting of a Mountain
Use permit, there is an estimated 6-to-9-month development time to trial
mining.

 

Batangas is a 1,160-hectare licence with a 25-year Mineral Production Sharing
Agreement ('MPSA') granted. The Project has a current JORC compliant resource
of 440,000 ounces, including a maiden ore reserve of 128,000 ounces (including
silver credits) as well as multiple additional targets providing extensive
resource upside. Exploration expenditure to the tune of c.$20m has already
been invested.

 

Work is focused on completing Exploration and Environmental Work Programmes
initially targeting the high-grade 1,164-hectares Lobo licence.  This has an
initial Probable JORC Compliant Ore Reserves of 171,000 tons at 6.6 g/t for
36,000 ounces of gold excluding silver credits based primarily on the South
West Breccia ('SWB') area of the licence that can be mined in the first 18
months of any operation.  There is an Indicated resource of 82,000 oz Au that
is perceived as easily convertible.  Additionally, the area has multiple
epithermal and high-grade targets already identified for resource expansion
with 15km of identified mineralised structures with results across the nine
identified targets yielding excellent results.  These include 2.1m @14.4g/t
Au and 3m at 12.1g/t at West Drift, which already has an Indicated and
Inferred resource of 350,000t at 3 g/t Au, 8.35m at 18.3 g/t Au and 6.0m at
31.2 g/t Au located immediately west of the SWB Extension, 19m surface channel
sample with intersections of 19m grading 9.8 g/t Au at Ulupong and trenching
at Limestone Target yielded 3.5m at 25.9 g/t Au including 1.5m at 56.8 g/t Au.

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