Kibo Mining plc (“Kibo” or the “Company”)  is pleased to announce  that  it has  completed  a placing  of  120,833,333  ordinary  shares  in  the  capital  of  the  Company  (the  “Shares”)  with clients  of  Kibo’s  UK  Broker,  Northland  Capital  Partners  Ltd.  at  a  placing  price  of  0.6p  to raise gross proceeds of £725,000  (the “Placing”). The funds raised will be applied towards the  Company’s  exploration  programs  in Tanzania, to  investigate  further  joint  venture opportunities and for general working capital purposes.

As the placing  price of the Shares is below the current par value of the Company’s Ordinary Shares of  €0.01, the Company has entered into  an  arrangement with its major shareholder, Mzuri  Capital  Group  Ltd  (“MCG”),  whereby  shares  held  by  MCG  will  be  used  for  the purposes of settling the Placing. Under the arrangement,  MCG’s shareholding will  then be restored through a loan structure soon after  the settlement of the Placing by  the issue of new Ordinary Shares to MCG to replace the shares used for settling the Placing.  The final number of shares held by MCG will be the same as it held before the Placing with no benefit received by MCG.  The Company intends to seek shareholder approval in the near future to reduce the par value of its Ordinary Shares and will advise of further details of this once they have been finalized.

In relation to this arrangement, with the exception of Louis Coetzee and Tinus Maree who are associated with MCG  and have therefore recused themselves, the directors of the Company consider, having consulted with RFC Ambrian Ltd, its nominated adviser, that the terms of the transaction are fair and reasonable insofar as its shareholders are concerned.

Application will be made for the new Shares to be admitted to trading on both the AIM and JSE AltX markets  with settlement expected to be completed before the end of January. The Shares will rank pari passu with the Company’s existing issued Ordinary Shares.  Following the issue of  the  new  Shares  the Company’s total issued share capital will be  1,247,355,175 Ordinary Shares of €0.01 each.

Enquiries:
Louis Coetzee +27 (0)83 2606126 Kibo Mining plc Chief Executive Officer
Andreas Lianos +27 (0)83 4408365 River Group Corporate Adviser and Designated Adviser on JSE
Nick Bealer +44 (0)207 710 9612 Cornhill Capital Ltd Joint Broker
Tim Metcalfe / Matthew Johnson +44 (0) 207 9768800 Northland Capital Partners Limited Joint Broker
Stuart Laing +61 8 94802500 RFC Corporate Finance Limited Nominated Adviser on AIM
Matt Beale +44 (0)7966 389 196 Fortbridge Public Relations

 

General Background & Strategy

Kibo was established in early 2008 to explore and develop mineral deposits in Tanzania, East Africa and was admitted to AIM on 27 April 2010 and AltX in South Africa on 30 May 2011. The Board of Kibo is composed of professionals whose experience include mineral exploration, mine development, mining finance, tax, law, mergers and acquisitions, and financial control of public companies. It is supported by competent and motivated Tanzanian staffs that operate from Kibo’s operations office in Dar es Salaam.

The mineral assets of the Company now comprise five projects in Tanzania – Haneti (nickel, PGE and gold), Morogoro (Gold), Lake Victoria (Gold), Rukwa (Coal) and Pinewood (Coal & Uranium) which give Kibo access to 38,000 km2 of early stage exploration licences in Tanzania’s premier gold mining region, the Lake Victoria Goldfield, within the emerging gold exploration regions in eastern Tanzania and uranium and coal regions in south-western Tanzania.

The Rukwa and Pinewood projects will provide Kibo shareholders with exposure to an attractive portfolio of strategic energy assets in Tanzania. Importantly, they are situated within and close to the Mtwara Corridor, an area where the Tanzanian Government has committed to significant infrastructure development and which has seen recent multi-million dollar investment in coal and coal-fired power stations and uranium exploration.

The Rukwa project is substantially more advanced than Kibo’s existing exploration projects, with a significant Mineral Resource of thermal coal already defined. This provides nearer term development and commercialisation potential, complementing the earlier stage existing projects held by Kibo. This is further supported by the memorandum of understanding that has already been entered into with a major Asian conglomerate for the development of a coal mine and mine-mouth coal-fired power plant based on the Rukwa project.

In addition, the Pinewood project encompasses a significant ground holding of prospective Karoo sequence sedimentary rocks. These sediments are attracting considerable interest from international companies exploring for uranium and coal mineralisation following some notable discoveries in recent years.

Kibo’s objective is to build shareholder value in a sustainable manner. This objective will be pursued primarily through active exploration of its own projects and by using the Company’s experience in Tanzania to acquire attractive exploration and development assets on competitive terms that can be moved swiftly up the value curve by using the Company’s own skills base whilst also seeking to benefit from strategic collaborative relationships with industry leaders who have special skills and competencies within their chosen fields of focus. Kibo will undertake continual risk assessment of its projects and take whatever actions it believes are necessary to ensure that these risks are mitigated.

9 January 2013
Johannesburg

Designated and Corporate Advisor
River Group

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