REG - Cora Gold Limited - £4.25 Million Fundraise

Cora GoldAnnouncement

01/12/2021 10:45

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RNS Number : 2178U  Cora Gold Limited  01 December 2021

Cora Gold Limited / EPIC: CORA.L / Market: AIM / Sector: Mining

1 December 2021

Cora Gold Limited ('Cora' or 'the Company')

£4.25 Million Fundraise

 

Cora Gold Limited, the West African focused gold company, is pleased to
announce that it has conditionally raised £4,250,000 before expenses through
a placing (the 'Placing') and Subscription (as defined below) (together the
'Fundraise') of 42,500,000 new ordinary shares of no par value in the Company
('Ordinary Shares') at a price of 10 pence per Ordinary Share (the 'New
Ordinary Shares'). Pursuant to the Placing, the Company's joint broker, Turner
Pope Investments Ltd ('TPI'), is acting as sole book runner (the
'Bookrunner').

 

Bert Monro, Chief Executive Officer of Cora, commented, "I am very pleased
with the strong support we have received for this fundraise from many of our
existing shareholders as well as new investors. This follows the recent
announcement of the updated Mineral Resource Estimate at our flagship
Sanankoro Gold Project (see RNS dated 16 November 2021) wherein Cora reported
total pit constrained resources of 21.9 million tonnes at 1.15 g/t Au for a
total of 809.3 koz of gold. This is a +200% increase from our maiden resource
published in December 2019 and notably all of our deposits remain open in all
directions indicating further potential.

 

"The DFS at Sanankoro is well underway, funded, and on schedule for completion
in H1 2022. We look forward to keeping all shareholders updated with our
progress, with significant work ongoing on many fronts, at this exciting time
for the Company."

 

Details of the Fundraise

The Fundraise is being conducted out of the authorities to issue and allot
Ordinary Shares in the capital of the Company granted to the Directors by
shareholders at the Company's Annual General Meeting held on 22 June 2021.
Accordingly, the issue of the New Ordinary Shares is not subject to the
approval of shareholders.

 

The Fundraise is conditional on admission of the New Ordinary Shares to
trading on AIM ('Admission').

 

Use of proceeds

The net proceeds of the Fundraise will principally be used to progress the
ongoing DFS at Sanankoro as well as continued exploration at the Company's
permits and for general working capital purposes.

 

Binding commitments

Binding commitments to subscribe for 11,562,500 New Ordinary Shares pursuant
to the Placing have been received by the Bookrunner from other investors.

 

Binding commitments to subscribe (the 'Subscription') for a total of
30,937,500 New Ordinary Shares have been received from Brookstone Business Inc
('Brookstone'; the Company's largest shareholder), Lord Farmer (a substantial
shareholder), certain directors of the Company and other subscribers. Details
of their participation and consequent interest in the Company's issued share
capital is described below.

 

Admission and Total Voting Rights

Through the Placing and the Subscription, the Company has conditionally raised
a total of approximately £4.25 million, before expenses, through the proposed
issue of 42,500,000 New Ordinary Shares to certain existing shareholders and
new investors.

 

As noted above, the Fundraise is subject to Admission. Application will be
made for the New Ordinary Shares to be admitted to trading on AIM and it is
expected that Admission will become effective and dealing in the New Ordinary
Shares will commence on or around 08 December 2021. The New Ordinary Shares
will rank pari passu with the existing Ordinary Shares.

 

Following Admission, the share capital of the Company will be comprised of
289,557,159 Ordinary Shares. The above figure of 289,557,159 may be used by
shareholders as the denominator for the calculations by which they will
determine if they are required to notify their interest in Cora under the
FCA's Disclosure and Transparency Rules.

 

Related party transaction

The Subscription by each of Brookstone, Lord Farmer, Edward Bowie, Andrew
Chubb, and Robert ('Bert') Monro constitutes related party transactions
pursuant to Rule 13 of the AIM Rules. Having consulted with the Company's
nominated adviser, finnCap Ltd, David Pelham, an independent Non-Executive
Director of the Company, considers that the terms of the transaction are fair
and reasonable insofar as its shareholders are concerned.

 

The following directors of the Company or their connected parties have given a
binding commitment to subscribe for the following numbers of shares in the
Fundraise:

·    Edward Bowie (independent Non-Executive Director and Chairman of the
board) - 100,000 New Ordinary Shares;

·    Andrew Chubb (independent Non-Executive Director) - 200,000 New
Ordinary Shares; and

·    Robert Monro (Chief Executive Officer and a Director) - 300,000 New
Ordinary Shares.

 

On Admission, certain substantial shareholders of the Company will hold the
following numbers of Ordinary Shares:

·    Brookstone will be the registered holder of 82,796,025 Ordinary
Shares, representing approximately 28.59 per cent. of the issued share capital
of the Company on Admission. Brookstone is wholly owned and controlled by
First Island Trust Company Limited as Trustee of the Nodo Trust, a
discretionary trust with a broad class of potential beneficiaries. Patrick
Quirk, the father of Paul Quirk (a Non-Executive Director of the Company), is
a potential beneficiary of the Nodo Trust; and

·    Lord Farmer will be the registered holder of 40,886,536 Ordinary
Shares, representing approximately 14.12 per cent. of the issued share capital
of the Company on Admission.

 

Relationship Agreement

On 18 March 2020 Brookstone, Key Ventures Holding Ltd (which is wholly owned
and controlled by First Island Trust Company Limited as Trustee of The Sunnega
Trust, a discretionary trust with a broad class of potential beneficiaries;
Paul Quirk (Non-Executive Director) is a potential beneficiary of The Sunnega
Trust) and Paul Quirk (collectively the 'Investors') entered into a
Relationship Agreement to regulate the relationship between the Investors and
the Company on an arm's length and normal commercial basis. In the event that
Investors' aggregated shareholdings becomes less than 30 per cent. then the
Relationship Agreement shall terminate. As at the date of this news release
the Investors' aggregated shareholdings were 34.38 per cent. of the issued
share capital of the Company. On Admission the Investors' revised aggregated
shareholdings will be 33.32 per cent. of the issued share capital of the
Company.

 

Revised shareholdings following Admission

On Admission, the revised shareholdings of the following directors and
substantial shareholders will be:

 

 

                            Current shareholding  New Ordinary Shares  Shareholding on Admission  Percentage of enlarged issued share capital
 Brookstone Business Inc    71,260,025            11,536,000           82,796,025                 28.59     %
 Lord Farmer                35,190,536            5,696,000            40,886,536                 14.12     %
 Edward Bowie               425,510               100,000              525,510                    0.18     %

 (Non-Executive Director)
 Andrew Chubb               339,526               200,000              539,526                    0.19     %

 (Non-Executive Director)
 Robert Monro               1,728,896             300,000              2,028,896                  0.70     %

 (Director)

 

Market Abuse Regulation ('MAR') Disclosure

This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of
the Market Abuse Regulation (EU) 596/2014 as it forms part of UK domestic law
by virtue of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 ("MAR"), and is
disclosed in accordance with the company's obligations under Article 17 of
MAR.

 

**ENDS**

 

For further information, please visit http://www.coragold.com or contact:

 

 Bert Monro           Cora Gold Limited          info@coragold.com

 Craig Banfield
 Christopher Raggett  finnCap Ltd                +44 (0) 20 7220 0500

 Charlie Beeson       Nomad & Joint Broker
 Andy Thacker         Turner Pope Investments    +44 (0) 20 3657 0050

 James Pope           Joint Broker
 Susie Geliher        St Brides Partners         cora@stbridespartners.co.uk

 Selina Lovell        Financial PR

 

Notes

Cora is an emerging West African gold developer with three principal de-risked
project areas within two known gold belts in Mali and Senegal covering over
+1,100 sq. km. Led by a team with a proven track record in making
multi-million-ounce gold discoveries that have been developed into operating
mines, its primary focus is on developing the Sanankoro Gold Project in the
Yanfolila Gold Belt, Southern Mali, where Cora hopes to commence construction
of an open pit oxide focussed gold mine in 2022. An updated mineral resource
estimate on the Project was published in November 2021 which increased the
Resources by over 200% (from the 2019 Maiden resource) to 809,300oz Au. A
Definitive Feasibility Study is expected to be completed in H1 2022.

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