Kibo Mining plc (“Kibo” or the “Company”) (AIM: KIBO; AltX: KBO), the mineral exploration and development company focused on gold, nickel, coal and uranium projects in Tanzania is pleased to announce its audited 12 month financial results for the period ending 31 December 2013. The Company’s Annual Report, which contains the full financial statements accompanying this announcement, is in the process of being printed and mailed to shareholders. A copy of this Annual Report will also be available from the Company’s website at www.kibo.energy. Details of the date and venue for this year’s AGM, which will take place towards the end of July, will be announced shortly.

Louis Coetzee, CEO of Kibo Mining, commented today:
“Kibo has made significant progress during 2013-4 despite the challenging environment, most notably at Rukwa and Imweru. The Rukwa Coal to Power Project is essential to support the growth of the Tanzanian power sector and I look forward to reporting further progress building on our success to date. Imweru has been a great addition to our asset portfolio which takes us closer to our goal of being a mineral development company. I am confident that with our strengthened Board, we will achieve our objectives and capitalise on an improving market in the year ahead.”

Highlights from the Chairman, Christian Schaffalitzky’s statement:
  • Key appointments to Rukwa Coal to Power Project (“RCPP”) project development team
  • RCPP included in Tanzania’s National Strategic Energy Plan
  • Appointment of Standard Bank as corporate finance advisor to RCPP
  • Completion of successful field programmes at Imweru (gold) and Haneti (nickel-PGM) including drilling and gold resource update at the former
  • Board re-organisation including appointment of Andreas Lianos as new financial director
Chairman’s Statement

Dear Shareholder,
Introduction

I am pleased to introduce Kibo’s 2013 Annual Report which records significant progress in our strategy of moving Kibo (the “Company”) from a junior explorer to a mineral development company. This progress is seen in the milestones we have reached in relation to both the Rukwa Coal to Power Project (“RCPP”) and the Imweru gold project.

On the RCPP, during the reporting period, we have acquired support from both the Tanzanian Government and major global energy producers for the development of this much needed power generating capacity in Tanzania which will help to address both the country’s current power shortages and projected increased demand. The inclusion of the project in the Tanzanian National Strategic Energy Plan and the strengthening of our project team will allow us to develop rapidly the planned Rukwa Development Programme. I would like to welcome Roy Adair and Casper Van Wyk as key members of this team, who collectively bring extensive executive leadership, corporate finance and project management skills, and a successful track record of achievement in the energy and natural resource sectors.

We also announced the engagement of Standard Bank as corporate finance advisor to the project with the task of completing a financial model and project financing strategy for the development. I believe that the support of Africa’s largest bank with a successful record in Tanzania of advising on and structuring finance on public private partnerships across a range of business sectors is a strong endorsement of the RCPP.

In addition to the RCPP, your Company made steady progress across its other commodity streams, notably in gold and base metals. In regard to gold, we were able to take advantage of a distressed asset disposal by one of our competitors to acquire a high quality gold exploration portfolio in northern Tanzania, significantly improving the quality of our gold licence holdings in this region. The portfolio included brownfields projects with pre-defined resources at Imweru and Lubando where Kibo holds a 90% interest, as well as earlier stage projects with some well-defined drill ready gold targets from exploration by previous operators. A drill programme was carried out towards the end of 2013 at the Imweru property with the objective of increasing the quality and quantity of the pre-existing NI 43-101 resource estimate of 629,600 oz. (19.5 million tonnes at 1.1 gram per tonne).

The eastern part of the pre-existing NI 43-101 Imweru resource was re-stated to a lower value as it partly falls within a licence no longer part of the Imweru project block. However, the net effect of the increase in estimated resource over the recently drilled central zone of the resource is 550,000 oz. (~15 million tonnes @ 1.14 grams per tonne) of which 495,000 oz, or 90% is attributable to Kibo. Taken together with the estimated gold resource at Lubando of 160,000 oz. (~ 2.59 million tonnes at 2 g/t), of which 144,000 oz or 90% is attributable to Kibo. Kibo’s combined gold resource estimate for its projects in the Geita Region is just over 700,000 (630,000 oz or 90% of this is attributable to Kibo). It is encouraging that our independent technical consultant, Tetra Tech EBA, has acknowledged in its report the potential to materially increase the resource by further drilling at Imweru and on a number of other proximal targets within the project region that remain to be tested.

On the base metal front, we implemented a comprehensive field exploration programme at our Haneti nickel-PGM project during 2013, funded by Brazilian multi-national Votorantim Metaís Participações Ltda (“Votorantim”) under the terms of a joint venture. Subsequent to the withdrawal of Votorantim from the joint venture in December 2013 following a review of their southern African operations, Kibo has now re-acquired a 100% interest in Haneti with the benefit of a field season’s exploration data acquired at no cost to the Company.

On the Corporate side, we implemented a capital re-organisation during the early part of 2013 which was approved by shareholders at an EGM on 22 March 2013. During the period, three directors, Des Burke, Cecil Bond and Bernard Poznanski also retired to pursue other interests and I wish to thank them for their contribution to the development of the Company to date and wish them well for the future. I would also like to welcome the recent appointment of Andrew Lianos to the board effective from 1 March 2014. Andrew is an experienced chartered accountant and corporate financier whose skills will be most valuable to the Company as it proceeds with its project development plans.

During the audit and in finalisation of the Annual Report the auditors drew the board’s attention to the requirements of IAS36 of the International Financial Reporting Standards (“IFRS”) which requires that the board undertakes a regular review, at least annually, of the value of the assets as disclosed in the Financial Statements so as to disclose all assets at their fair value taking the current state of affairs of the world economy and the stage of development of the various projects into account. This has required that certain assets be impaired to the extent necessary. The major adjustments were made against the Company’s Rukwa coal and Pinewood uranium assets. Adoption of this policy will require an annual review and adjustment as to the value of assets as and when new information comes to hand or circumstances surrounding the assets change.

In summary, our capital re-organisation, board changes and new appointments for RCPP implemented during 2013 and early 2014 give us the appropriate corporate structure to face the challenges ahead. I am confident that these changes will enhance our ability to deliver on the RCPP in particular. It only remains for me to thank our CEO Louis Coetzee and the management team for persisting in the challenging climate for our sector to take Kibo forward from exploration to development. I also wish to thank my fellow board members for their valuable insights, our advisors for their on-going guidance and the Tanzanian Government for their support of our development plans. We hope to repay this support with the completion of the RCPP, a much needed energy project development which will substantially benefit the country and in particular local communities in southern Tanzania. Finally, I would like to acknowledge the continued support of our shareholders while we work to realise the inherent value across all our projects.

Christian Schaffalitzky
Chairman

Download full report:

[ott_teaser btn_text=”Download” btn_icon=”icon-right-big” btn_url=”https://kibo.energy/wp-content/uploads/Final-RNS-Kibo-Financial-Results-2013.pdf” btn_target=”_blank”]12 Month Audited Financial Results for Period Ending 31 December 2013[/ott_teaser]