REG - Vast Resources PLC - Placing & Update on Refinancing

Vast ResourcesAnnouncement

15/05/2024 07:15

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RNS Number : 5081O  Vast Resources PLC  15 May 2024

Vast Resources plc / Ticker: VAST / Index: AIM / Sector: Mining

 

15 May 2024

Vast Resources plc

('Vast' or the 'Company')

 

Placing to raise £616,000 and Update on Structural Refinancing

Operational Update

 

Placing and Update on Structural Refinancing

 

Vast Resources plc, the AIM-listed mining company, announces that it has
raised £616,000 gross through a placing (the 'Placing') of 280,000,000
ordinary shares of 0.1p in the Company ('Ordinary Shares') at a price of 0.22p
per Ordinary Share (the 'Placing').  The Placing was undertaken by the
Company's joint broker, Axis Capital Markets Ltd ('Axis').

 

The net cash raised from the Placing will be used for bridging the short-term
gap in operational expenses while the Company awaits the first tranche of the
structural refinancing to close (see below), and to cover near-term corporate
obligations, and working capital needs.

 

Further to the announcement of 29 April 2024, the Company is pleased to
announce that the owner of the Swiss Investment Company confirmed in writing
on 13 May 2024 to Vast that he has resolved internal matters relating to the
release of Tranche 1 of his proposed investment in the Company, and expects to
transfer the funds shortly.  Whilst the Board is reassured by this
confirmation and is hopeful of the release of funds, of course there can be no
guarantee that this funding will be secured.  Should it not be, the Company
would need to make alternative arrangements to meet its obligations as
previously announced.

 

Admission of the Placing Shares & Total Voting Rights

 

Application will be made to AIM for the Placing Shares, which will rank pari
passu with existing Ordinary Shares, to be admitted to trading on AIM
('Admission') in two tranches.  It is expected that Admission will become
effective and dealing will commence in respect of 45,500,000 Shares on or
around 21 May 2024 (the 'First Admission') and Admission will become effective
and dealing will commence in respect of 234,500,000 Shares, being the balance
of the placing shares, on or around 7 June 2024 (the 'Second Admission').
The Placing is conditional on Admission.

 

Following the First Admission, the total issued share capital of the Company
will be 974,107,357 and following the Second Admission this will be
1,208,607,357.  The Company does not hold any Ordinary Shares in Treasury and
accordingly the above figures of 974,107,357 and 1,208,607,357 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 Vast under the
FCA's Disclosure and Transparency Rule.

 

Operational Update

 

Tajikistan - Aprelevka

 

The Company also wishes to announce that further to the announcement of 29
April 2024 Formin has provided Gulf International Minerals Ltd ('Gulf') an
updated resource report based on the SRK produced wireframes, collated
historic data and the 2019-2022 drilling results (the 'Report').  The full
Report is set out in an Appendix to this announcement.  The Report includes
an updated MRE under the NAEN standard.

 

As previously announced, Vast has been contracted to develop and manage the
Aprelevka gold mines on behalf of its owner Gulf International Minerals Ltd
under which Vast is entitled, inter alia, to 10% of the earnings that Gulf
receives from its 49% interest in Aprelevka in joint venture with the
government of Tajikistan.  As part of its arrangements, Vast is entitled to a
right of first refusal to convert its profit share entitlement into an equity
interest of 10% in Gulf at any time from 1 January 2025 to 15 January 2027,
and represents a 4.9% indirect net attributable interest in the resources set
out in the MRE below.

 

The following is the text of the Executive Summary of the Report:

 

"Introduction

 

Formin SA has been requested by Gulf International Minerals Ltd to prepare a
digitization of historical data, provide a 3D geological model and a resource
evaluation, for Aprelevka Mine located in the Northern part of Tajikistan.

 

Property Description

 

The Aprelevka deposit consists of two pits, is about 70km by road to the east
of Kansai, and was classified by the Soviets as a centralized vein system of
primarily quartz‐carbonate composition.

 

Ore description and Resource estimation

 

The ore is represented by 3 main quartz veins with a high grade of gold and
silver.

 

The resource estimate results are presented below:

 

             Vein 1  2.80  473,418.8    3.03  17.11  1.43   8.10

 Measured
             Vein 2  2.80  467,687.5    4.41  41.37  2.06   19.35
             Vein 3  2.80  297,605.0    2.38  36.85  0.71   10.97
             Total   2.80  1,238,711.3  3.39  31.01  4.20   38.42
             Vein 1  2.80  276,062.5    3.12  16.65  0.86   4.60

 Indicated
             Vein 2  2.80  300,483.8    3.88  35.27  1.17   10.60
             Vein 3  2.80  168,910.0    2.52  42.05  0.43   7.10
             Total   2.80  745,456.3    3.29  29.91  2.45   22.30
             Vein 1  2.80  386,715.0    3.47  18.63  1.34   7.20

 Inferred
             Vein 2  2.80  559,037.5    4.06  38.64  2.27   21.60
             Vein 3  2.80  188,921.3    2.55  51.12  0.48   9.66
             Total   2.80  1,134,673.8  3.61  33.90  4.09   38.46
             Vein 1  2.80  1,136,196.3  3.20  17.52  3.64   19.90

 Total
             Vein 2  2.80  1,327,208.8  4.14  38.84  5.50   51.55
             Vein 3  2.80  655,436.3    2.47  42.30  1.62   27.73
             Total   2.80  3,118,841.3  3.45  31.80  10.75  99.18  "

 

Report Signatories

 

Vlad Andrei Negru, who has signed the report on behalf of Formin, is a
'Certified Person' from the National Agency for Mineral Resource in Romania.
He is a geologist with more than 12 years' experience in Mineral Resource
estimation.  He has worked for a large number of projects in Romanian and
also as an SRK consultant.  Mr Negru consents to the inclusion of his name in
this announcement in the form and context to which it appears.

 

PGM Marketing contract

 

The Company wishes to confirm that four (4) tons of PGM concentrate has been
prepared to depart to Nikash in Dubai to separate the contained PGMs.  Once
separation of the contained metals is complete, the Company will receive
payment for this first shipment in accordance with the marketing agreement as
announced on 22 January 2024.  It is not possible to estimate the amount of
any such payment until the minerals involved have been smelted and values
established.

 

Important Notices

This announcement contains 'forward-looking statements' concerning the Company
that are subject to risks and uncertainties. Generally, the words 'will',
'may', 'should', 'continue', 'believes', 'targets', 'plans', 'expects',
'aims', 'intends', 'anticipates' or similar expressions or negatives thereof
identify forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements involve
risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially
from those expressed in the forward-looking statements.  Many of these risks
and uncertainties relate to factors that are beyond the Company's ability to
control or estimate precisely. The Company cannot give any assurance that such
forward-looking statements will prove to have been correct. The reader is
cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements,
which speak only as of the date of this announcement. The Company does not
undertake any obligation to update or revise publicly any of the
forward-looking statements set out herein, whether as a result of new
information, future events or otherwise, except to the extent legally
required.

 

Market Abuse Regulation (MAR) Disclosure

 

Certain information contained within this announcement is deemed by the
Company to constitute inside information as stipulated under the Market Abuse
Regulations (EU) No. 596/2014 as it forms part of UK Domestic Law by virtue of
the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 ("UK MAR") until the release of this
announcement.

 

**ENDS**

 

For further information, visit www.vastplc.com or please contact:

 

 Vast Resources plc                                    www.vastplc.com (http://www.vastplc.com)

 Andrew Prelea (CEO)                                   +44 (0) 20 7846 0974

 Beaumont Cornish - Financial & Nominated Advisor      www.beaumontcornish.com (http://www.beaumontcornish.com)

 Roland Cornish                                        +44 (0) 20 7628 3396

 James Biddle

 Shore Capital Stockbrokers Limited - Joint Broker     www.shorecapmarkets.co.uk (http://www.shorecapmarkets.co.uk)

 Toby Gibbs / James Thomas (Corporate Advisory)        +44 (0) 20 7408 4050

 Axis Capital Markets Limited - Joint Broker           www.axcap247.com (http://www.axcap247.com)
 Richard Hutchinson

                                                     +44 (0) 20 3206 0320

 St Brides Partners Limited                            www.stbridespartners.co.uk (http://www.stbridespartners.co.uk)

 Susie Geliher                                         +44 (0) 20 7236 1177

 

ABOUT VAST RESOURCES PLC

 

Vast Resources plc is a United Kingdom AIM listed mining company with mines
and projects in Romania, Tajikistan, and Zimbabwe.

 

In Romania, the Company is focused on the rapid advancement of high-quality
projects by recommencing production at previously producing mines.

 

The Company's Romanian portfolio includes 100% interest in Vast Baita Plai SA
which owns 100% of the producing Baita Plai Polymetallic Mine, located in the
Apuseni Mountains, Transylvania, an area which hosts Romania's largest
polymetallic mines. The mine has a JORC compliant Reserve & Resource
Report which underpins the initial mine production life of approximately 3-4
years with an in-situ total mineral resource of 15,695 tonnes copper
equivalent with a further 1.8M-3M tonnes exploration target. The Company is
now working on confirming an enlarged exploration target of up to 5.8M tonnes.

 

The Company also owns the Manaila Polymetallic Mine in Romania, which the
Company is looking to bring back into production following a period of care
and maintenance. The Company has also been granted the Manaila Carlibaba
Extended Exploitation Licence that will allow the Company to re-examine the
exploitation of the mineral resources within the larger Manaila Carlibaba
licence area.

 

The Company retains a continued presence in Zimbabwe.

 

Vast has an interest in a joint venture company which provides exposure to a
near term revenue opportunity from the Takob Mine processing facility in
Tajikistan.  The Takob Mine opportunity, which is 100% financed, will provide
Vast with a 12.25 percent royalty over all sales of non-ferrous concentrate
and any other metals produced.

 

Also in Tajikistan, Vast has been contracted to develop and manage the
Aprelevka gold mines on behalf of its owner Gulf International Minerals Ltd
("Gulf") under which Vast is entitled, inter alia, to 10% of the earnings that
Gulf receives from its 49% interest in Aprelevka in joint venture with the
government of Tajikistan.  Aprelevka holds four active operational mining
licences located along the Tien Shan Belt that extends through Central Asia,
currently producing approximately 11,600oz of gold and 116,000 oz of silver
per annum.  It is the intention of the Company to assist in increasing
Aprelevka's production from these four mines closer to the historical peak
production rates of approximately 27,000oz of gold and 250,000oz of silver per
year from the operational mines.

 

Beaumont Cornish Ltd

 

Beaumont Cornish Limited ("Beaumont Cornish") is the Company's Nominated
Adviser and is authorised and regulated by the FCA. Beaumont Cornish's
responsibilities as the Company's Nominated Adviser, including a
responsibility to advise and guide the Company on its responsibilities under
the AIM Rules for Companies and AIM Rules for Nominated Advisers, are owed
solely to the London Stock Exchange. Beaumont Cornish is not acting for and
will not be responsible to any other persons for providing protections
afforded to customers of Beaumont Cornish nor for advising them in relation to
the proposed arrangements described in this announcement or any matter
referred to in it.

 

 

APPENDIX

 

TECHNICAL PROGRAM FOR APRELEKVA MINE

PROJECT EXPLOITATION LICENCE

 

Prepared by Formin SA

 

Project Location:

Latitude 40°, 29' 21.3" North and Longitude 70°, 0.31, 20.1"

Northern Tajikistan

 

Prepared for:

GULF INTERNATIONAL MINERALS LTD

 

INTRODUCTION
 
Background

Formin SA is a company with a complex potential in terms of consulting
services, design, execution and documentation of projects, geological,
geotechnical and water drillings, geophysics and other light mining works.

 

Founded in 1952 under the name of "Caransebes Exploration Enterprise", Formin
SA operated until 1990 under various names, with predominant activity in
geological investigation and mining.

 

The Aprelevka project consists of two open pit mines. The mineralization was
discovered and outlined by Soviet geologists and engineers in the 1970s. In
1982 the Soviet group published their results in a 225 page report titled
"Detailed Exploration of Aprelevka Deposits with Reserves Calculation,
1978‐1982". The mine has been operating in most of the 1990‐2023.

 

Previous exploration

Discovered in the 1960s and put into production in 1983, the Aprelevka deposit
was explored and developed from 1972 to 1986, when it was commissioned as an
open‐pit mine. The exploration was done by the soviets.

 

Most recent prospecting and evaluation program was carried out from 2019-2022
(until 31.12.2022). For the Aprelevka ore deposit, the area prospected is
called Bahori.

 

Total reserves as of 01.03.2023 for the Bahori (Aprelevka), Farkhunda
(Burgunda), Moron (Ikkizhelon) and Surkhkon (Kizil-Cheku) deposits in
categories C1+C1off-balance reserves +C2 off-balance reserves + P2 ore -
4719,294 thousand tons, gold - 12346,506 kg, silver 196,856 tons.

 

In the case of additional geological exploration on the flanks and the study
of the lower horizons, it is possible to double the amount of mineral reserves
above these deposits.

 

Previous Mining

From production reports, the ore extracted from 2003-2022 is as follows:

 

 Aprelevka
 Year   Tonnes  Au g/t  Ag g/t  Au oz extracted  eq Au oz
 2003   88029   3       25.92   8492             864
 2004   43186   2.57    10.12   3569             165
 2005   50382   2.66    14.79   4309             282
 2006   57666   2.6     20.09   4821             439
 2007   37908   2.27    14.29   2767             205
 2008   0       0       0       0                0
 2009   14518   2.57    16.32   1200             90
 2010   14518   5.31    19.38   2480             107
 2011   24900   8.05    22.45   6448             212
 2012   5921    7.74    58.44   1473             131
 2013   2613    6.71    127.06  564              126
 2014   38659   5.83    68.76   7248             1006
 2015   31318   5.81    61.98   5851             735
 2016   51268   4.08    36.22   6725             703
 2017   53234   4.39    42.64   7511             859
 2018   41345   4.51    51.95   5991             813
 2019   55865   3.39    69.85   6098             1477
 2020   45676   2.97    45.25   4359             782
 2021   40448   1.67    26.28   2177             402
 2022   23944   2.30    23.64   1770             214
 Total  721398  3.61    35.20   83850            9611

 

Previous Mineral Resource estimate

 

Initial Soviet estimate was of 2 million tonnes with 6.5 gold grade. In 1997
it was upgraded to 4.358 million tonnes with 4.35 gold grade and 44.291 silver
grade.

 

In 2001 MicroMine Consulting of South Africa prepared a resource and reserve
estimate for Gulf. As reviewed by Pamicon MicroMine's report conforms to
Australian as well as CIM standards.

MicroMine applied 2001 economic constraints (more severe than present day
constraints would likely be) to the deposit model with a 1 g/t Au cutoff and
came up with an equivalent measured Mineral Resource (CIM standard).

 

The 2001 MicroMine Consulting report estimated a total resource and reserve
for Gulf of 586000 tonnes of ore with a gold grade of 7.48 g/t and silver 71.2
g/t.

 

In 2010 JTC "Aprelevka" status report estimates a remaining reserves of 351000
tones. Which is confirmed to be accurate because the report states that 393500
tonnes have been mined; and the production reports between 2003-2009 state
that 291689 tonnes have been mines with a content of 2.68 gold grade and 18.52
silver grade.

 

From 2010 till 2022 out of 351000 tonnes. 429709 tonnes have been mined with
4.25 g/t gold and 46.52 g/t silver.

 
RELIANCE ON OTHER EXPERTS
Certified person

 

The Certified Person (Certificate No. 1823/31.01.2017 from Romanian National
Agency for Mineral Resource) responsible for this report is Negru Vlad Andrei,
Eng. Geol., Chief Geologist at Formin SA.

 

Negru Vlad Andrei is a geologist certified by the Romanian state with more
than 12 years experience in resource estimation who worked for a large number
of projects in Romania and also as an SRK CONSULTING (GLOBAL) LIMITED
consultant for Ma'aden in Saudi Arabia.

 

Sources of Information

Formin's study and interpretation is based upon information provided by the
Company, including information relating to the data quality, data collection
procedures and protocols, are as follows:

 

·      Database files:

o  Drilling and sampling database (collar, survey and assays);

o  Historical 2D Mine plans, cross sections, sampling and assay database

 

PROPERTY DESCRIPTION, LOCATION AND HISTORY
Mineral Tenure, Permits and Permissions

 

Aprelevka western pit                   N40° 29' 21.3"
E70° 03' 20.1"

Aprelevka eastern pit                    N40° 29' 25.8"
E70° 03' 32.6"

 

The Aprelevka deposit consists of two pits, is about 70 km by road to the east
of Kansai, and was classified by the Soviets as a centralized vein system of
primarily quartz‐carbonate composition.

 

Figure 1.Location of the mining license

 

Surface layout

The topographic survey was not provided and the topo wireframe was created
using the drillholes collars elevation.

Figure 2. Topography wireframe created from collar points

 
GEOLOGICAL MODELLING
 
Data extraction from historical logs, maps and sections

 

The provided maps and sections are georeferenced, vectorized and classified as
geological data, structural data, assay and ore body.

 

For the veins modelling were created structural points with azimuth and dip
for the hangingwall and footwall.

 

The main lithologies were created with polylines with tangents with respect to
the provided historical sections and maps.

 

The main lithologies digitized were:

·      Andesitic porphyry

·      Dacite porphyry

·      Granite porphyry

·      Quaternary deposits and chert

·      Quartz veins

 

 

 

 

Figure 3. Structural points created for construction of the veins( Yellow-
Hanging Wall and Blue- Footwall)

 

Figure 4. Faulting system created based on historical data

 

 

 

Figure 5.Geological Model validated by comparing with historical sections

Figure 6. Geological Model validated by comparing with historical sections

Figure 7.Geological Model validated by comparing with historical sections

Mineral Resource estimate

The resource estimation was performed on the 3 main veins for Gold and Silver
using the following steps:

-    Compositing data- to reduce the influence of the different sample
lengths

Figure 8.Evaluation of the composited results against raw values - Vein 1 for
Au

 

-    Transformation of the data using Normal Score - The normal score
transformation is designed to transform your dataset so that it closely
resembles a standard normal distribution. It does this by ranking the values
in your dataset from lowest to highest and matching these ranks to equivalent
ranks generated from a normal distribution.

 

Figure 9. Normal score transformed values

- Variography on NS transformed values

 

Downhole variogram

 

The Downhole Variogram can be used to better define the nugget. It looks only
looks at pairs of samples on the same drillhole and uses the differences in
depths to calculate the lag value.

 

As it isn't associated with a specific direction, the Angle tolerance
parameter is not available for the Downhole Variogram.

 

Ordinary Krigging interpolation using Elipsoid Ranges resulted in Variography
with a search definition of a minimum of 4 samples.

Same procedure was performed for each of the three veins for Au and Ag the
estimation parameters are presented in the appendicies.

 

Block Model creation

 

The block model was created in order to represent the estimations performed on
previous step and interrogate to obtain the estimation reports:

 

The parameters used for the block model creation are:

 Number of parent blocks:  160 × 80 × 200 = 2,560,000
 Sub-blocks per parent:    4 × 4 × 4 = 64
 Base point:               700300, 95470, 1040
 Parent block size:        10, 10, 2
 Minimum sub-block size:   2.5, 2.5, 0.5
 Boundary size:            1600, 800, 400

 Blocks in each layer:
 Layer 0:                  2,433,447
 Layer 1:                  624,096
 Layer 2:                  3,106,624
 Total:                    6,164,167

 Bounding box:
 Minimum X:                700300
 Minimum Y:                95470
 Minimum Z:                640
 Maximum X:                701900
 Maximum Y:                96270
 Maximum Z:                1040

 

 

Resource estimation result

                                               Average Value     Material Content
 Resource class  Ore     Density  Mass         Au       Ag       Au         Ag
                         g/cm³    t            g/t      g/t      t          t
 Measured        Vein 1  2.80     473,418.8    3.03     17.11    1.43       8.10
                 Vein 2  2.80     467,687.5    4.41     41.37    2.06       19.35
                 Vein 3  2.80     297,605.0    2.38     36.85    0.71       10.97
                 Total   2.80     1,238,711.3  3.39     31.01    4.20       38.42
 Indicated       Vein 1  2.80     276,062.5    3.12     16.65    0.86       4.60
                 Vein 2  2.80     300,483.8    3.88     35.27    1.17       10.60
                 Vein 3  2.80     168,910.0    2.52     42.05    0.43       7.10
                 Total   2.80     745,456.3    3.29     29.91    2.45       22.30
 Inferred        Vein 1  2.80     386,715.0    3.47     18.63    1.34       7.20
                 Vein 2  2.80     559,037.5    4.06     38.64    2.27       21.60
                 Vein 3  2.80     188,921.3    2.55     51.12    0.48       9.66
                 Total   2.80     1,134,673.8  3.61     33.90    4.09       38.46
 Total           Vein 1  2.80     1,136,196.3  3.20     17.52    3.64       19.90
                 Vein 2  2.80     1,327,208.8  4.14     38.84    5.50       51.55
                 Vein 3  2.80     655,436.3    2.47     42.30    1.62       27.73
                 Total   2.80     3,118,841.3  3.45     31.80    10.75      99.18

 

 

 

 

 

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