TIDMANGM

RNS Number : 2134P

Angel Mining PLC

22 October 2012

AIM: ANGM

22 October 2012

ANGEL MINING PLC

("Angel Mining" or the "Company")

Financial and Operational update

The Board of Angel Mining today provides the following financial and operational update.

Nalunaq

A mechanical breakdown on Polaroil's fuel oil delivery tanker led to the late delivery of fuel oil at Nalunaq and as a result production was stopped on 26 September for 5 days. The production halt was a prudent response and was required to ensure that sufficient fuel was available to maintain the tank agitators in the plant and to operate the air compressors until the fuel oil could be supplied. The crushed rock already in the circuit was progressively washed out to tailings to avoid the possibility of the material settling at the bottom of the tanks.

The fuel oil was subsequently delivered on 1 October and production recommenced immediately. The processing circuit has since been re-charged with new ore and carbon stripping recommenced on 14 October. As a consequence of the delayed fuel oil delivery the plant will only achieve a single gold pour in October and this will be for a lower quantity of gold than had previously anticipated for the monthly production total.

Extension of Loan Arrangements

The unforeseen shortfall in gold production in October has placed further pressure on the Company's limited financial resources and, as a result, the Company today announces that it has extended its loan arrangements with Cyrus Capital Partners LP ("Cyrus") by an additional US$2,000,000.

In addition to Cyrus making available this further short term loan, they have agreed to the extension of the repayment date of the existing outstanding loans made available by Cyrus pursuant to the facilities agreement entered into on 6 June 2007 (as amended and varied from time to time) from 31 December 2012 to 15 February 2013 . The aggregate amount now repayable by the Company to Cyrus on 15 February 2013 is US$30.4 million plus accrued interest (such amount, the "Cyrus Outstandings").

One of the conditions to Cyrus making the additional funds available to the Company was that the Company grant to Cyrus an option entitling Cyrus to acquire 75% of the issued share capital of Arctic Mining Limited in exchange for GBP1 and a write-down of a portion of the Cyrus Outstandings to be agreed at the time of exercise. Arctic Mining Limited is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Company that owns 100% of the share capital of Black Angel Mining A/S. It does not include the Nalunaq license which is held separately in another wholly owned subsidiary of the Company.

This option is exercisable by Cyrus on or after 15 February 2013 in the event that the Company has not, on or before such date, repaid at least US$3,850,000 of the Cyrus Outstandings and also complied with certain other conditions, including the raising of further equity, as set out in the option agreement.

The Company will be seeking a more long-term solution to its financing arrangements during the next few months, including raising further equity. The Company recognises the challenges that raising equity present whilst the current debt structure is in place and as such we are pleased to report that Cyrus have confirmed their intention to participate in a discussion about the Company's capital structure before the end of November. Further announcements will be made in respect of any agreed restructuring in due course.

In order to facilitate this process and to avoid any conflict of interests, Daniel Bordessa has resigned as a Director of the Company with immediate effect. The Board would like to thank Daniel for his support and commitment as a Director and look forward to continuing to their working relationship. The structure and composition is under review and the Company expects to announce further details in this respect before 31 December 2012. This will coincide with a broader strategic review the Company intends to undertake within the same period.

Yorkville

The Company has today issued 25,000,000 shares at a price of 1.0 pence per share to Yorkville in settlement of the current outstanding loan repayment. The amount of the loan has been reduced from US$1,626,339 to US$1,226,339 and the repayment date has been extended to 31 March 2013. Interest on the balance continues to accrue at 4% per annum. The newly issued shares are expected to be admitted to trading on AIM on 26 October.

Nick Hall, CEO of Angel Mining, commented: "This latest incident was beyond our control and it was totally unexpected as Polaroil have an excellent record of reliability. It came just at the time that the Company was expecting to see a significant increase in gold production at Nalunaq and this has been extremely frustrating. Cyrus and Yorkville have been most supportive for which we are most grateful. Moreover, the offer by Cyrus to consider longer term debt restructuring should help us to strengthen the Company's balance sheet and to ensure that it is not, in itself, an impediment to financing Black Angel. We look forward to sharing these developments with you in the coming months."

Enquiries:

 
 Angel Mining plc 
  Nicholas Hall, Chief Executive 
   Officer                              07931 709 053 
  Kevin McNair, Chief Financial 
   Officer                               07900 690 908 
 Fox-Davies Capital (Nomad and 
  Broker) 
  Daniel Fox-Davies/Simon Leathers       0203 463 5000 
 
 Bishopsgate Communications Limited 
  Nick Rome/Ivana Petkova                0207 562 3350 
 

Background to Angel Mining

Nalunaq

The Company first poured gold at Nalunaq on 27 May 2011 following final completion of the processing plant and is targeting optimal production by Q1 2012 of approximately 24,000 oz per annum thereby providing the Company with cash flow which will be dedicated to funding development at Black Angel, further exploration at Nalunaq and reducing debt. The current mining plan anticipates a mine life of two to five years, subject to further exploration work. The directors anticipate that Nalunaq may enter into toll treatment arrangements with other potential gold mining activities in the region where appropriate. Angel Mining currently operates the only operational gold mine in the region and anticipates that its operation may be suitable for processing ore from other gold mining companies in the region in the future.

Black Angel

The Black Angel project is a high grade zinc/lead project based around a previously developed mine in the north of Greenland. The table below sets out the JORC Code compliant mineral resources estimate for the Black Angel project which includes three sets of zones within the mine and three satellite deposits which have been explored.

 
        Summary of Black Angel Mineral Resources (JORC) as of 31 December 
                                       2007 
================================================================================ 
                     Category      Tonnage    Zinc    Lead   Silver    Mineable 
                                     (kt)      (%)     (%)    (g/t)    reserves 
                                                                         (kt) 
================  =============  ==========  ======  =====  =======  =========== 
 Angel Zone        Indicated            791    13.0    4.5     25.0          218 
================  =============  ==========  ======  =====  =======  =========== 
 Cover Zone        Indicated            522     8.3    2.4     18.0          231 
================  =============  ==========  ======  =====  =======  =========== 
 Other zones 
  within the 
  Black Angel 
  mine             Indicated            697    10.4    3.3     13.0            - 
================  =============  ==========  ======  =====  =======  =========== 
 South Lakes 
  Glacier          Indicated          1,726     6.9    2.5     14.5            - 
================  =============  ==========  ======  =====  =======  =========== 
 Ark               Inferred             492     4.7    2.2     20.4            - 
================  =============  ==========  ======  =====  =======  =========== 
 Nunngarut 2       Indicated            196     9.0    3.4     31.0            - 
================  =============  ==========  ======  =====  =======  =========== 
 Nunngarut 2       Inferred               1     4.5    1.9      9.0            - 
================  =============  ==========  ======  =====  =======  =========== 
 Total                                4,425                                  449 
===============================  ==========  ======  =====  =======  =========== 
 Source: Wardell Armstrong International Ltd. 
================================================================================ 
 

The project consists of three phases:

Phase I: Complete the rehabilitation of infrastructure to allow access to the mine, the mine camp and related facilities.

Phase II: Complete the detailed review of the pillar extraction programme within the Angel and Cover Zones, including the construction of the process plant and related systems to allow for the shipment of concentrate from the site.

Phase III: Develop a further exploration programme for the existing JORC resources at the Ark and Glacier deposits as well as identified mineralization at Deep Ice, Nunngarut and a number of other exploration targets within the license area (see the announcements made by the Company on 6 June 2006 titled "Black Angel 2006 Resource Statement" and on 30 November 2007 titled "Black Angel 2007 Resource Statement").

Dr Bob Dowdell is the qualified person that has reviewed and approved the technical information contained in this announcement. Dr Dowdell holds a BSc and Doctorate in Mining Engineering from Newcastle University and is a Chartered Engineer and Member of the Institution of Mining and Metallurgy.

More information on the Company is available on the website, please click here: http://www.angelmining.com/

This information is provided by RNS

The company news service from the London Stock Exchange

END

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