Focus
Minerals Limited (ASX: FML)
ASX
RELEASE
11 March 2008
FOCUS
COMPLETES $14M PLACEMENT, ANNOUNCES DETAILS OF SHARE PURCHASE PLAN
KEY
POINTS
- Focus completes $14M share placement
comprising 254.5m shares at 5.5 cents per share.
- Confirms details of Share Purchase
Plan (SPP) to raise a minimum of an additional A$4m
- Corporate placement and SPP to underpin buyout of Committee Bay
Resources’ 50% interest in the Coolgardie Gold Project and to fund
ongoing development and exploration activities.
Focus
Minerals Ltd (ASX: FML –
“Focus”) is pleased to announce that it has today (Tuesday) completed a share placement to
sophisticated investors to raise a total of A$14
million, via the issue
of 254.5 million shares at 5.5 cents per share. The Company also confirmed
details of a Share Purchase Plan (SPP) to raise an additional $4 million, amounting to a total equity raising of
$18 million.
The funds
raised from the share placement and SPP are part of a combined $64 million
strategy (announced last week) to help fund the recently announced acquisition
of Redemption Joint Venture partner Committee Bay Resources’ (TSX: CBR)
50% stake in the Coolgardie Gold Project and to accelerate development of the
Company’s flagship Perseverance Gold Mine. The funds raised will also
support ongoing exploration in the area for both gold and nickel.
The share
placement was completed pursuant to the “excluded offer” provisions
of the Corporations Act. 2001. The shares issued pursuant to the placement will
rank equally in all respects with the existing ordinary shares of the Company.
Perth-based
merchant bank Azure Capital is acting as Corporate Advisor and Lead Manager to
all aspects of the capital raising and the SPP and Joint Manager to a A$18.6m
debt facility currently under negotiation with specialist banking group,
Investec Bank (Australia) Ltd.
The share
placement (as advised in last week’s announcement) will require shareholder
approval at a meeting to be held on April 14 2008. Meeting documents are to be
mailed to shareholders shortly.
Share Purchase Plan
As
foreshadowed in last week’s announcement, Focus has announced plans to
undertake a non-renounceable entitlement issue of ordinary shares to existing
shareholders, and has lodged a disclosure document with the Australian
Securities and Investments Commission for the issue of a minimum of 72.7
million ordinary shares at an issue price of 5.5c. The minimum raised will be
$4 million with any shortfall to be placed with professional investors.
Focus is
pleased to be able to give existing shareholders this opportunity, which will
enable them to participate in the funding of activities that will see Focus
secure 100% ownership of the Coolgardie assets as it moves into gold production
in April. All registered Focus shareholders as at 10 March 2008 are entitled to participate in the SPP up to the
maximum value of $5,000 (or 90,909 shares), with the closing date for acceptances
being Thursday, 17 April 2008 5:00 pm WST
(unless the Offer is extended). All shares issued pursuant to the SPP will rank
equally with the existing ordinary shares on issue.
Timetable
and Important Dates*
EVENT
|
DATE
|
Announcement
of SPP
|
Friday,7
March 2008
|
Record
date for determining entitlements to Shares
|
Monday, 10
March 2008
|
Entitlement
and Acceptance Forms to be sent to Shareholders
|
Friday, 14
March 2008
|
Closing
Date of Offer
|
Thursday,17
April 2008
|
Allotment of
shares under the Plan
|
Wednesday,
23 April 2008
|
Despatch
date for holding statements
|
Wednesday,
30 April 2008
|
*Dates are indicative only and subject to change
Summary
Focus is
preparing to commence initial gold production at Coolgardie in April at the
high-grade Perseverance Project. This Project is forecast to yield production
of 76,500 ounces over 21 months and offers significant exposure to additional
exploration success and the current strong gold price.
Gold
production is targeted to deliver approximately 5,300 ounces in FY2007/08
(reflecting start-up production), increasing to ~65,000 ounces in FY2008/09,
~75,000 ounces in FY2009/10 and then ramping up to a sustainable level of 80,000
- 100,000 ounces per annum from FY2010/11 onwards from other projects currently
within the development pipeline at Coolgardie.
Focus is
also planning to commence an accelerated deep drilling program to test the area
below the existing Nepean Nickel Mine workings, with the objective of
confirming the potential to develop the mine below the 14th level (500 metres).
The Company is aiming to re-commission the Nepean Project towards the end of
the second Quarter of 2008, extracting remnant mineralized ore.
A bankable
feasibility study on this project will be completed by the end of March 2008,
when the trial mining will commence and be self funding. This will allow
the Company to acquire more information about mining conditions, before
embarking upon the development of a planned decline to access previously
untapped ore and provide for much deeper mining.
ENDS
Released by:
|
On behalf of:
|
Nicholas Read/Jason Cunningham
|
Don Taig, Chairman
Peter Williams, Managing Director
|
Read Corporate
|
Focus Minerals Ltd
|
Telephone: (+61-8)
9388-1474
|
Telephone: (+61-8) 9215-7888
|
www.readcorporate.com.au
|
Web: www.focusminerals.com.au
|
COMPETENT PERSON’S STATEMENT
The information in this report relating to Resources and Reserves are
based on work supervised by Mr Chuck McCormick who is a Fellow of the
Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (AusIMM). Mr McCormick has the
relevant experience as a “Competent Person” as defined in the 2004
edition of the Australasian Code for Reporting of Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves in relation
to the mineralisation reported on. Mr McCormick is Exploration Manager of Focus
Minerals Ltd and consents to the inclusion of the material in the form and
content in which it appears.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION – FOCUS MINERALS LTD
Focus
Minerals Ltd (ASX: FML) is an Australian-based
exploration and development group whose focus is to become a significant gold
and nickel producer in the Coolgardie-Kalgoorlie-Widgiemooltha region of Western Australia.
Focus
Minerals is the largest landholder in the Coolgardie Gold Belt located in
Western Australia, 560km east of Perth and 35km west of the ‘Super
Pit’ in Kalgoorlie-Boulder. More than 2.6 million ounces of gold has been
produced from the Coolgardie gold belt alone since 1892. Focus holds the
mineral rights to more than 210sq km of tenements including Measured, Indicated
and Inferred Resources exceeding 1.65 million ounces of gold as well as the
1.2mtpa Three Mile Hill processing plant.
Focus
Minerals is also fast tracking development of its wholly-owned Nepean Nickel Project
(current estimated resource totalling 591,300t @ 2.2% Ni) located 25km south of
Coolgardie. Focus has a view of recommencing mining operations from the
historic production centre in 2008.
READ CORPORATE
Public
Relations Corporate Communications
T: (+61-8) 9388-1474 | F: (+61-8) 9388-1472 | E: info@readcorporate.com.au | Web: www.readcorporate.com.au
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