Become a Member
  • Track your favourite stocks
  • Create & monitor portfolios
  • Daily portfolio value
Sign Up
Quickpicks
Add shares to your
quickpicks to
display them here!

Investor Update

15th Feb 2012 07:00

RNS Number : 4282X
Wolf Minerals Limited
15 February 2012
 



February 15 2012

Wolf Minerals Limited

 

("Wolf" or "the Company")(ASX: WLF AIM: WLFE)

 

Investor Update

ISSUE 9: February 2012

 

Welcome to the first issue of the Wolf Minerals Investor Update for the New Year.

 

2012 shapes as a milestone year for Wolf, as we move into the development and construction phase of our Hemerdon tungsten and tin project. 

 

Since the last Investor Update, we have completed a successful listing on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) of the London Stock Exchange. The listing has been very positive for Wolf, and has helped facilitate a strong demand for the Company's shares in the London market, and this has been borne out in the strong recent performance of our share price.

 

The Company also continues to make strong progress on the funding requirements for the Hemerdon project. We recently reported that we had mandated a group of leading mining project financiers to provide GBP£55 million in senior debt finance for the project. Credit committee approval for this funding is expected in the near term.

 

We are also continuing discussions with potential off-take partners to provide subordinated debt for the project. The Company has been extremely pleased with the level of support it has encountered for its funding requirements in what remains a difficult environment in capital markets.

 

We are also delighted to have received formal support for the Hemerdon project from the UK Government. The UK Minister of State for Trade has personally acknowledged the importance of the Hemerdon project to the local community and to the UK and wider EU.

 

I trust you enjoy this issue of the Wolf Investor Update and I look forward to sharing news on the positive progress of your Company with you throughout the year.

Humphrey Hale

Managing Director

 

FORMAL UK GOVERNMENT SUPPORT FOR HEMERDON PROJECT

 

The Hemerdon project continues to advance towards development and, as it does so, is generating a growing level of awareness and acknowledgement as a significant, near-term mining operation.

Upon successful development of the Hemerdon mine, it will provide a sizeable portion of world tungsten

production, and will also be of major importance to the local community, the UK and the EU.

The importance of the project has been formally recognised by the UK Government. Recently, the UK Minister of State for Trade, Lord Green of Hurstpierpoint, wrote to Wolf to offer his support to the Company following the successful completion of planning consents for the development of the Hemerdon project.

Lord Green said that he hoped the Company would now be able to proceed quickly with the development of

the project.

In offering his support to Wolf, Lord Green said:

"This is an important project for a number of reasons; to the local community in terms of jobs and wealth creation and to the UK and wider EU in securing supplies of tungsten. I am aware that tungsten ranks highly in both the British Geological Society and EU's critical raw materials lists and that it has unique properties that are impossible to replace in certain specialised industrial applications."

 

SUCCESSFUL AIM LISTING COMPLETED

 

The Company recently completed a highly successful listing on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange.

Wolf commenced trading on AIM on 30 November 2011, under the stock code WLFE.

Given the advanced stage of the Hemerdon project and its UK location, the Company was of the view that an AIM listing was a logical next-step in its development.

The AIM listing provides a direct mechanism for UK investors to share in Wolf's growth, and it provides the Company with the benefit of having direct access to the London capital market.

Wolf's AIM listing was a compliance listing, whereby its entire existing ordinary share capital was listed on AIM. There was no capital raising associated with the listing. The listing was managed by leading London-based investment bank Evolution Securities Limited (now owned by Investec).

 

COMPANY TO RAISE GBP£55 MILLION FINANCE FOR HEMERDON

 

Wolf is well advanced in its funding process for the development and construction of the Hemerdon project.

The Company has mandated UniCredit Bank AG (UniCredit Corporate & Investment Banking), ING Bank N.V. and Caterpillar Financial SARL to seek credit approval for GBP£55 million (AUD$80.85 million) of senior debt finance facilities to fund the commercial development of the project.

All three lenders are recognised global leaders in mining project finance, and it is anticipated that credit approval for this funding will be provided in the near future.

The funding will support the construction of the Hemerdon project, based on Wolf's Definitive Feasibility Study. The study was released in May last year and confirmed the robust economic viability of the project.

Wolf is also in continuing discussions with potential off-take partners to provide subordinated debt. The subordinated debt component and the senior debt funding would enable Wolf to minimise the equity portion of the total funding package required to put the Hemerdon project into production.

 

SUCCESSFUL AIM LISTING COMPLETED

 

The Company recently completed a highly successful listing on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange.

Wolf commenced trading on AIM on 30 November 2011, under the stock code WLFE.

Given the advanced stage of the Hemerdon project and its UK location, the Company was of the view that an AIM listing was a logical next-step in its development.

The AIM listing provides a direct mechanism for UK investors to share in Wolf's growth, and it provides the Company with the benefit of having direct access to the London capital market.

Wolf's AIM listing was a compliance listing, whereby its entire existing ordinary share capital was listed on AIM. There was no capital raising associated with the listing. The listing was managed by leading London-based investment bank Evolution Securities Limited (now owned by Investec).

 

PLANNING PERMISSIONS GRANTED FOR HEMERDON LINK ROAD

 

Wolf has now secured all relevant planning permissions for the construction of the Hemerdon link road, and a contractor had been appointed to construct the road.

This is an important step in the development of the Hemerdon project, as places the Company in a position to break ground on the project in the near future.

As part of the planning permission for the mine a 600 metre public link road is to be constructed prior to developing the mine, to remove a long term constriction in the transport network.

The new road will also benefit other local extractive operations and create a long term piece of infrastructure to support safe and efficient transportation in the local area.

Bardon Contracting, an Aggregate Industries UK Ltd. business, was selected to build the road. Work on the road is scheduled to be completed in June.

 

For further details, please contact:

 

Wolf Minerals Limited

Humphrey Hale

 

+61 8 6364 3776

Evolution Securities Limited

Mark Wellesley-Wood/Neil Elliot

+44 (0) 20 7071 4300

 

Newgate Threadneedle

Laurence Read/Beth Harris

+44 (0) 20 7653 9855

 

Notes to Editors

 

The Hemerdon Ball Project is one of the largest tungsten and tin resources in the western world. It is Wolf Minerals' core project and the Company is focused on developing the project into a large scale, open pit mining operation.

The Company released a positive Definitive Feasibility Study for the Hemerdon project in May 2011, and will now move forward to bank the project.

This will position Wolf as a world class tungsten and tin producer. The project has updated planning permission for mining until 2021.

The British Geological Survey ranks the Hemerdon project as the fourth largest tungsten deposit in the world, in terms of contained tungsten metal, and says that the project has the potential to be a major new global-scale mine.

Tungsten, which is the main commodity at the Hemerdon project, has been identified by the EU as one of 14 'critical' minerals.

 

This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
 
END
 
 
NRABKQDBOBKDABD

Related Shares:

Wolf Minerals
FTSE 100 Latest
Value8,275.66
Change0.00