28th Mar 2007 08:15
Allied Gold Limited28 March 2007 For immediate release 28 March 2007 ALLIED GOLD LIMITED ("ALLIED" OR "THE COMPANY") ALLIED PLACES AUD$13,056,000 Allied Gold Limited, is pleased to announce the completion of the placement of40,800,000 ordinary shares at A$0.32 per share to raise AUD$13,056,000(approximately US$10,450,000) before expenses. The placement has been made to institutional clients of UK based MirabaudSecurities Limited and falls within the Company's 15% placement capacity as setout in the Australian Stock Exchange ("ASX") Listing Rule 7.1. The funds will be used to: 1. purchase at least three (3) drill rigs with full support equipment including two (2) multi-purpose drill rigs and one (1) man portable drill rig and transport them to the Tabar Islands Group, off-shore Papua New Guinea (estimated cost US$4.0 million). 2. upgrade sample preparation facilities on site to facilitate enhanced assay turnaround times (estimated cost US$0.8 million). 3. fast track exploration on the Tabar Islands Group, with the near-term goal of increasing oxide material ore reserves from current levels of 673,000 ounces to in excess of 1 million ounces and upgrade a portion of the current 714,000 ounces of sulphide resources to ore reserves (estimated cost US$4.4 million). 4. additional working capital. Allied is progressing the development of the Simberi Oxide Gold Project on thenorthern most island of the Tabar Islands Group, Simberi Island. The project,which has a capital expenditure budget of A$80 million, is designed to produce84,000 ounces of gold per annum for around nine years. First production isslated for the second half of this calendar year and the company is pleased toreport that construction activities remain on time and within budget. Mark Caruso, Allied's Executive Chairman, commented: "The additional funds raised in this placement will assist in reinvigorating ourexploration program on the Tabar Islands, where we have in excess of 2,389,000ounces of gold in mineral resources on Simberi Island, and numerous anomaliesand drill targets identified outside of these resources throughout the islandgroup. We believe that the Tabar Islands project has significant explorationpotential and the purchase of our own drill rigs will assist in defining thispotential. Meanwhile, the Simberi Oxide Gold Project is on schedule to becommissioned before year-end ensuring that any additional gold discoveries willhave a good chance of being commercialized." The new ordinary shares will when issued rank pari passu with the existingordinary shares in issue. Application will be made for the new ordinary sharesto be admitted to trading on the ASX and AIM, and trading in such shares isexpected to become effective on 2 April 2007. The placing is subject tosettlement and admission of the new ordinary shares to trading on the ASX andAIM. For more information:+-----------------------------------+-----------------------------------+|Mark Caruso |T:+61 8 93533638 ||Managing Director | |+-----------------------------------+-----------------------------------+|Roland Cornish |T: +44 (0) 20 7628 3396 ||Beamont Cornish Limited | |+-----------------------------------+-----------------------------------+ This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
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