15th Jun 2011 07:22
Frontier Mining Ltd
("Frontier" or the "Company")
Funding of $5 million completed
Frontier Mining Ltd (AIM: FML), the AIM listed gold and copper exploration and development company focused on Kazakhstan and Russia, announces today that it has closed a copper off-take agreement along with associated funding with Red KiteMine Finance ("Redkite").
The offtake agreement is for four years from commencement of production and the funding is for $10m of which $5m has already been received. The additional amount is conditional on certain conditions being met, which the Company is confident of achieving. The funding is on similar terms to the loan note previously announced by Frontier on May 9, though there are no warrants associated with this funding.
Erlan Sagadiev, CEO of Frontier Mining, commented: "This is a further step in the advancement of the Benkala project. We welcome Redkite's involvement and funding in the project and this news further ensures that we will proceed to plan."
More information on Redkite can be found at http://www.rkcapitalpartners.com/
For further details please contact:
Frontier Mining Ltd |
George Cole |
+44 (0) 20 7898 9019
|
Libertas Capital (NOMAD)
Westhouse Securities Ltd (Joint Broker)
XCap Securities plc (Joint Broker)
| Sandy Jamieson
Dermot McKechnie Matthew Johnson
John Bellis John Grant David Newton
| +44 (0) 20 7569 9650
+44 (0) 20 7601 6100
+44 (0) 20 7101 7070
|
Walbrook PR Walbrook IR | Bob Huxford (Media Enquiries) Paul Cornelius (Investor Enquiries) | +44 (0) 20 7933 8783 +44 (0) 20 7933 8794
|
Notes to Editors
About Frontier Mining Ltd:
Frontier Mining Ltd. is a mineral exploration and development Company that is incorporated in the Cayman Islands for the purpose of exploring and developing gold and copper deposits in the Republic of Kazakhstan. Through its subsidiaries and affiliates, Frontier locates, evaluates, acquires, explores and develops mineral properties.
Frontier currently owns two licenses in Kazakhstan. They are the Naimanjal exploration and mining licence, held by FML Kazakhstan, and U.S. Megatech BVI which holds the Benkala licence, via KazCopper LLP. FML Kazakhstan is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Frontier Mining Ltd.
In Kazakhstan, Frontier has one producing gold mine, Koskuduk; and a 100% interest in the Benkala copper mine, currently under development with initial production planned in 2011. Frontier also owns the Maminskoye gold deposit in the southern Ural region of Russia currently under exploration.
A Competent Persons Report ("CPR") completed by Wardell Armstrong International ("WAI") in June 2010, estimated the oxide section of the Benkala project, which represents development of only ~10% of the total resource at Benkala, to have a NPV of $190 million, based on 0.5% diluted copper grade, 63% recovery and 185,000 tons of contained metal at a 6,000 USD per tonne copper price. Frontier will use the production platform of the SX-EW project to finance further evaluation and technical studies required to advance development of the significant Benkala sulphide resource.
The Meminskoye license area is situated in the southern Ural region of Russia and consists of three deposits: Maminskoye, Gabievskoye and Bezimyanny-Vostochny. Of these, the Maminskoye deposit is the most explored but is the smallest at 300m wide, 650m long and to a known depth of over 250m. The other two deposits are considerably larger and display similar geological characteristics to the Maminskoye deposit but have not had extensive exploration as yet.
The Gabievskoye deposit has a strike length of 5km with an average width of between 500-700m. The Bezimyanny-Vostochny deposit hosts three veins which have previously been mined on a small scale with reported gold grades of between 6-63g/t. The structure of this deposit is analogous to Gabievskoye. However, at this time, the strike extent and width of this target remains unknown.
The Maminskoye ores have been subjected to extensive metallurgical analysis with gold recovery estimated at 93.5% for the oxide ore and 92.5% for the primary ore. The CPR, completed by WAI in June 2010, evaluated a preliminary project model contemplating development of an open pit mine operating at an initial mining rate of 700ktpa for the first three years, increasing to 1Mtpa for a 14 year project life. Based on an estimated capital cost of $75 million and a $950/oz gold price WAI estimated an attractive project, with a NPV of $110.9 million using a 10% discount rate and IRR of 48% with a 3 year payback.
Frontier also has a potential copper porphyry deposit with associated gold and molybdenum, Baitimir; and several copper/gold prospects along a 25-km trend including both VMS and porphyry types. Metallurgical tests on its Beschoku and Yubileiny copper projects confirm the oxide copper ore is amenable to extraction using low cost SX-EW technology.
Frontier maintains an administrative and technical office in Almaty, the former capital city of Kazakhstan and the main business centre in the southeast. The Company also maintains offices in Semipalatinsk and Aktyubinsk, close to the Naimanjal and Benkala operations respectively.
Issued Share Capital
Frontier Mining's shares are traded on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange.
Frontier has 1,860,913,973 ordinary shares issued.
For further information please visit: www.frontiermining.com.
Related Shares:
FML.L