13th Jun 2008 07:00
For immediate release 13 June 2008
Templar Minerals Plc
("Templar" or the "Company")
Vatukoula Expanded Exploration Programme
Templar Minerals notes the recent announcement made on 9 June 2008 by River Diamonds PLC ("River Diamonds") concerning the raising of an additional £3 million at 4.25p per share. This follows the £5.5m financing announced by River Diamonds on 5 June 2008.
Templar Minerals currently holds 285,000,000 ordinary shares in River Diamonds representing 16.9% of River Diamond's issued ordinary share capital. As announced on 8 May 2008, Templar agreed to purchase a further 143,290,000 ordinary shares in River Diamonds which when aggregated with its existing interest would take the holding to 25.42% of River Diamonds' issued ordinary share capital. This latter transaction has not yet completed and a further announcement will be made in due course.
The funds raised by River Diamonds will be used primarily for an expanded exploration programme at the company's wholly-owned Vatukoula Gold Mine in Fiji ("Vatukoula" or "the Project"). This exploration programme will seek to:
Increase Vatukoula's stated JORC-compliant gold reserves of 830,000 ounces (2.26 million tonnes grading 11.41 grams per tonne gold) by upgrading the JORC-compliant resource base of 5,150,000 ounces (16.84 million tonnes grading 9.49 grams per tonne gold). This will facilitate the mining operations in planning and optimising annual production and operating costs.
Increase Vatukoula's gold resource base above those already identified.
Four initial target areas have been identified namely:
1) Near mine open pittable opportunities
2) Vatukoula Deep Project
3) In-fill drilling on existing resource base
4) New Targets identified within the existing Special Prospecting License Areas
David Lenigas, Executive Chairman of Templar Minerals, commented:
"We are delighted that River Diamonds has successfully concluded these fundraisings which underline investors' conviction in the Vatukoula project which will further enhance the opportunity to increase the value of the investment for Templar Minerals. The Vatukoula Gold Mine has a long and impressive production history yet exploration has been significantly underfunded over the past decade. The recommencement of exploration drilling at the Vatukoula Deep and surrounding areas is now focused on increasing reserves and resources at the mine and continuing Vatukoula's success."
Contacts for Templar Minerals:
|
Templar Minerals David Lenigas Ian Stalker Neil Herbert Beaumont Cornish Roland Cornish Rosalind Hill Abrahams |
Tel: +44 (0) 7881 825378 Tel: + 27 11 269 4900 Tel: + 27 11 269 4900 Tel: +44 (0) 20 7628 3396 |
|
Financial Dynamics Ben Brewerton Ed Westropp |
Tel + 44 (0) 20 7831 3113 |
Qualified Person
Kiran Morzaria B.Eng (ACSM), MBA, has reviewed and approved the information on behalf River Diamonds. Kiran holds a Bachelor of Engineering (Industrial Geology) from the Camborne School of Mines and an MBA (Finance) from CASS Business School. Kiran is the Finance Director of River Diamonds. He is a fellow of the Geological Society.
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