Quarterly Operations and Production Update

16 October 2013

Weatherly International Plc

("Weatherly" or "the Company")

Quarterly Operations and Production Update

Weatherly International Plc (AIM:WTI) is pleased to announce its quarterly update for the first quarter of the financial year ended 30 June 2014.

Highlights

· The Company is finalising the procedural requirements with Orion Mine Finance to drawdown the loan for US$91 million for the development of the 17,000tpa Tschudi SX-EW copper project

· First quarter production from Central Operations was 75,060 tonnes of ore producing 5,118 tonnes of copper concentrate containing 1,201 tonnes of copper metal

· C1 cash costs for the quarter US$ 6,096/t (US$ 2.77/lb) is 13% lower than the C1 costs last quarter

· Cash and cash equivalents of US$ 6.1 million as at 30 September 2013

Rod Webster CEO of Weatherly commented:

"We are currently working closely with Orion Mine Finance to finalise the procedural requirements for drawdown of the Tschudi project finance loan. We will make a further announcement once this critical milestone has been achieved and will also publish our anticipated timeline to production at that stage".

Operationally we have made significant improvements and while we have not yet seen increased metal production we have achieved increased mined ore and a 13% reduction of unit cost. Our efforts going forward are to maintain this trend".

Tschudi Project

 The Company and Orion Mine Finance are working through the procedural requirements that need to be adhered to pre drawdown of the loan to develop Tschudi. The procedural process is sequential and will take time to complete.

The loan agreement, signed by the company and Orion Mine Finance, providing the Company with the full funding for the development of Tschudi, is broken down into three tranches:

· Tranche 1: US$ 3 million to repay the outstanding loan the Company has with Louis Dreyfus. Upon repayment by the Company of the outstanding amount owed, Louis Dreyfus will release the security it currently holds. When this security is released Orion Mine Finance will place their security and release the second tranche of the agreed loan

· Tranche 2: US$ 80 million and covers the cost of developing Tschudi

· Tranche 3: US$ 8 million to cover any project overrun

The Company will make an announcement upon drawdown of the first tranche, a further announcement upon drawdown of the second tranche and will communicate the planned timeline to production with the announcement of drawdown of the second tranche.

Central Operations

Production

Production results for the first quarter 2014 financial year are set out in the table below:

Our unit cash cost (C1) for the quarter was US$ 6,096/t (US$ 2.77/lb), 13% lower than the C1 costs last quarter, ore treated is also up compared to the previous quarter and grade was lower at 1.72% resulting in a slightly lower amount of copper concentrate and copper contained.

We continue to work towards reducing our unit costs and improving our ore and metal output. We anticipate additional improvements to be realised over the next few quarters as we continue to drive our efficiency and cost initiatives as previously announced, specifically the restructure at Central Operations and the development of new mining areas.

Commercial

During the quarter, the Company delivered 1,261 tonnes of copper contained in 6,104 tonnes of concentrate to metal trader Louis Dreyfus at a weighted average price of US$ 7,578 /t copper (US$3.4/lb). 

The Company has ceased forward selling at current prices.

As at 30 September 2013, the Company had:

(1) Cash at bank of US $6.1 m equivalent.

(2) Reduced its working capital loan with Louis Dreyfus to US$3.2m, having made loan repayments of US$0.7m in the quarter.

(3) Forward contracts over 2,000 tonnes copper at an average price of US$7,895/t 10 months forward. 

Conference call

The Company will hold a conference call on Thursday the 17th of October at 15.00 am UK time. If you would like to attend please send an email to [email protected] and we will send you the dial in telephone number.

About Weatherly

Weatherly is an AIM listed, copper focused mining company, the principal assets of which are located in Namibia. It currently has two producing copper mines (Otjihase and Matchless), and a major new mine under development (Tschudi Copper Project). These assets will enable Weatherly to achieve its medium term strategy of establishing a copper mining business capable of sustaining approximately 25,000tpa of copper at an average industry cost of production. The Company also has a 25% stake in an AIM listed company, China Africa Resources Plc (CAR), which is currently focused on the development of the lead/zinc project at Berg Aukas in Northern Namibia.

For further information please contact:

Weatherly International Plc +44 (0) 20 7917 2989

Rod Webster, Chief Executive Officer

Rolf Gerritsen, Senior Executive

Canaccord Genuity Limited +44 (0) 20 7523 8000

Andrew Chubb / Christopher Fincken