BMR Group PLC Off-take Agreement and General Update (4697G)
August 08 2016 - 2:00AM
UK Regulatory
TIDMBMR
RNS Number : 4697G
BMR Group PLC
08 August 2016
BMR Group PLC ("BMR" or the "Company")
Off-take Agreement and General Update
Introduction
The Board is pleased, further to its announcement on 1 August
2016, to announce that on 5 August 2016 it entered into the
anticipated off-take agreement (the "Agreement") with African
Compass International Limited ("ACI"), a private South African
group engaged in mining, energy and agri-business.
It is also pleased to provide an update on other developments at
its operations at Kabwe.
Agreement with ACI
The Agreement provides for the off-take by ACI over a minimum
five-year period, commencing within six months of commissioning of
the Kabwe plant, of a minimum of 500 tpm of agricultural grade zinc
sulphate heptahydrate (ZSH), 300 tpm of lead sponge and 300 tpm of
LME grade 'A' electrolytic zinc cathodes, each to a specified
quality. All products will be supplied on an FOB Kabwe plant gate
basis at a price linked to the related LME spot price. It is
estimated that sales of the minimum quantities of these three
products from the Plant, as it is proposed to be configured, would
generate gross revenue of at least US$750,000 per month at current
prices. Upon the minimum quantity having been delivered in a given
month, BMR may, subject to the approval of ACI not to be
unreasonably withheld, sell any of such products to third parties
in that month.
The Agreement also provides that ACI will agree to make
available to BMR in September 2016 a trade finance facility of
US$3.5 million, which BMR intends to use to finance in part the
construction of the plant at Kabwe. Drawdowns under this facility,
which is interest free, can be settled, at BMR's election, by set
off against up to 100% of product revenues due from ACI, or, at
ACI's election, by set off against up to 50% of such product
revenues. BMR anticipates entering into the agreement relating to
this facility shortly, at which point a further announcement will
be made.
Plant construction
BMR has now finished the civil works to prepare the floor space
in the old mine concentrator building, which is now ready for
concreting. Orders for all of the leach/precipitation/lead leach
mixing tanks and agitators have been placed. In addition, the
planned extension and modifications to the test laboratory facility
at Kabwe have been completed.
Recent filtration and settling optimisation test work undertaken
by our metallurgical consultant Kupfermelt Metal Processing CC.,
South Africa, in conjunction with the Company's main process
equipment supplier, has enabled BMR to standardise on the thickener
designs and to reduce the leach and precipitation stage Horizontal
Belt Filters and Filter Press sizes by substantially increasing the
residue pulp densities. This development will result in various
cost savings, which would help to balance out any unforeseen
escalation in plant costs.
The Kashitu prospect
Ground conditions in the Kashitu section of the Large Scale
Mining Licence have now improved sufficiently to allow the start of
the planned pitting and trenching programme. The programme is
designed to investigate historical anomalies and to carry out
additional exploration to extend our knowledge of this section of
our Large Scale Mining Licence.
ZEMA
The programme to establish baseline studies for monitoring air,
ground water and personal health in compliance with the conditions
set out by ZEMA following their approval to build the plant has
been started by J A Consultancy and is expected to be completed by
November 2016.
ZEMA has informed the Company that its decision to approve the
EPB for selling the Waelz Kiln slag is now expected to be made
during August. A further announcement will be made when the
decision is released.
Personnel
Finally, the Board is pleased to announce that the Company has
recently strengthened its management team with two key
appointments.
Ms Steph Wilk has joined the Company as Group Geologist. Steph
has an MSc in Earth Sciences from the Royal School of Mines,
Imperial College, London. She has six years' field experience,
three of which were spent working as an exploration geologist in
Australia. She also brings a range of data analysis and computer
processing skills that will strengthen the Company's ability to
investigate and evaluate any acquisition opportunities.
Mr Luther Banda has joined the Company as a Plant Metallurgist.
He has a BSc in Metallurgy and Mineral Processing from the
University of Zambia, School of Mines, Lusaka. Luther recently
worked for Mopani Copper Mines (Glencore) in the Nkana Leach Plant
as Senior Assistant Metallurgical Engineer. His responsibilities
will be to manage the metallurgical performance and production of
the Plant once in operation. In the meantime he is supervising
BMR's ongoing test work programme which is designed to optimise and
improve all phases of the metallurgical process and de-risk the
plant commissioning phase.
This announcement contains inside information for the purposes
of Article 7 of Regulation 596/2014.
Alex Borrelli, Chairman of BMR, commented: "We are delighted to
have secured an additional loan facility, now agreed at $3.5
million, which further substantiates our planned Kabwe operations.
Our continuing progress on our schedule of works at Kabwe remains
in line for completing the plant construction for commissioning in
early 2017."
Ends
For further information:
BMR Group PLC 020 7734 7282
Alex Borrelli, CEO and Chairman
WH Ireland Limited 020 7220 1666
NOMAD and Joint Broker
Chris Fielding, Head of Corporate Finance
Peterhouse Corporate Finance 020 7469 0930
Joint Broker
Lucy Williams/ Duncan Vasey/ Heena Karani
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
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