TIDMMTR
09 December 2016
Metal Tiger plc
("Metal Tiger" or the "Company")
Strategic Update
Metal Tiger plc (LON:MTR), the London Stock Exchange AIM listed
investor in strategic natural resources is pleased to announce a
strategic update for shareholders.
The Board of the Company has noted the volatility of the share
price following the announcement made on 25 November 2016 regarding
a potential offer for Metal Tiger which was subsequently rejected
by the Company's independent directors on the basis that the offer
fundamentally undervalued the Company.
Notwithstanding that rejection, the Directors believe that
circumstances of the potential offer have led to recent instability
in the market and in light of this a significant restructuring of
the Board and management of the Company has occurred.
The Board would like to note that despite the fundamentally
undervalued potential offer and the subsequent volatility, the
Company's key interests continue to make substantial progress with
2017 expected to deliver further key milestones. It is in that
regard and with proper recognition of shareholder feedback of late,
the Board would like to confirm the current status and strategic
plans with respect to its core business interests.
Botswana Copper-Silver (Metal Tiger - 30%):
The Company's Botswanan Joint Venture continues to move at a
highly efficient pace. From first discovery of the copper-silver
deposit at T3 in March 2016, a material maiden resource statement
has been completed in September 2016 and an economically robust
Scoping Study published earlier this week.
The Scoping Study demonstrated a base case NPV(10%) of US$180m
at a US$2.53/lb copper price (consensus price Oct16). With the
current copper spot price at circa 2.64$/lb the Directors see a
possible valuation upside should the copper price out perform the
October consensus.
On a macro level the Directors believe that should the T3
project be taken into production it will commence operations in a
supply-deficit market that will occur in 2019/2020 and that
increasing demand from emerging markets in China and elsewhere,
infrastructure programmes, consumer goods demand and new
technologies (eg. renewable energy and electric vehicles), will
provide further upside. The Directors believe that the high quality
of the concentrate to be produced from the open pit mine at T3 will
be in high demand as a blend to lower quality copper concentrates
and therefore should command a higher price because of this.
On the exploration side, the resource as outlined is across only
one square kilometre of the 1,000 square kilometres representing
the prospective T3 dome structure. The Joint Venture has multiple
additional targets within T3 and elsewhere across its extensive
6,500 square kilometre Kalahari Copper Belt licences.
Given the highly prospective nature of the JV licence and
surrounding T3 land, the Directors believe the most accretive
activity in 2017 will be further near project exploration as this
has the best potential to deliver increased return on investment.
Additionally, given the proximity of the targets, any additional
resource is not expected to materially increase the Capex
requirements for the project and therefore one could expect that
should similar deposits to T3 be located and proven the result
should significantly increase the NPV of the project. The Directors
believe that any such discoveries could quickly be incorporated
into the pre-feasibility / definitive feasibility study and create
a spoke-hub model whereby several deposits feed the processing
plant. As it stands the Directors note that any 2017 work programme
will be subject to both MTR and MOD being able to finance their
respective portions.
Metal Tiger holds a 30% stake in this project and has
experienced significant interest in our position from third
parties. In this regard the Joint Venture has been party to a
number of Non-Disclosure Agreements with third parties expressing
an interest in the project and several of these parties are on-site
in Botswana currently. In addition, Metal Tiger received an
unsolicited cash bid subject to due diligence to acquire our 30%
position prior to the release of the Scoping Study. This approach
was rejected as undervaluing Metal Tiger's strategic project stake
but demonstrated the extent of interest in this project.
The Directors note that during MOD's recent visit to London,
Michael McNeilly, whom at the time was Company Secretary and
Commercial Manager, Julian Hanna (MD of MOD Resources Ltd) and
Jacques Van Rensburg (Exploration Manager for MOD Resources Ltd)
attended several meetings with private equity investors interested
in the Botswanan project and that a variety of different options
were discussed and are actively being assessed by both parties.
The Board is proactively working with its joint venture partners
MOD Resources to gather as much knowledge regarding the Botswanan
project mineralisation in general and to push the project towards
development and further exploration. In this regard Terry Grammer
remains on the exploration advisory team of the Joint Venture
alongside Julian Hanna and Jacques Van Rensburg.
Thailand Silver-Lead-Zinc (Metal Tiger Interest - 77.9%):
Our Joint Venture in Thailand continues to progress with the
steps being implemented to secure mining permits for the two
silver-lead-zinc mines in Kanchanthaburi province, located in north
west Thailand.
Various project, baseline water studies, environmental, mine
planning and community studies are underway and yielding positive
commercial and social results.
The team is focused on developing a safe and secure operating
mine and processing plant facility for the primary benefit of the
Thai people and in manner that demonstrates the ability of
respectful international companies to achieve a positive commercial
outcome from their investment in Thailand, its resources and its
people.
The team is focused on developing a project that has substantial
longevity and in this regard are actively working with Bara
Consulting to assess the potential to add to the 2012 NI-43-101
Resource. In particular this work is focused on the portions of the
Boh-Yai mine where there is more significant zinc potential. There
is a significant amount of historical drill logs, maps and other
information that is in the process of being assessed by Bara
Consulting and the Directors are confident that such efforts will
lead to results that can be assessed by a competent person and
added to the resource in an updated NI-43-101 report.
Spain Tungsten-Gold-Antimony (Metal Tiger interest - 50%):
Work has continued at pace on the Maria Gold/Antimony and
Logrosan Tungsten/Gold Joint Ventures. The Company with its
advisers is currently assessing the latest exploration data from
which we can confirm positive findings have been achieved notably
in respect of additional gold/antimony mineralisation identified
through our partners drilling programme and other activities.
We will provide further Spanish updates in the near term.
Pipeline:
Metal Tiger's core projects outlined above and notably those
held in Botswana and Thailand, offer, in the Board's view, an
inherent value considerably higher than the current market
capitalisation. This has been validated by previous analyst reports
and a new broker note to be released shortly.
It is therefore incumbent on the Board to focus Company
resources in furthering our core Metal Projects and ensuring the
valuation thereof is properly reflected in our market
valuation.
The Board consider that adding new project interests into Metal
Tiger is not necessary and would not add any additional value in
the eyes of investors. New projects within the Company's pipeline,
and non-core project interests within the Company will be vended
into other vehicles or disposed.
Asset Trading:
We recognise shareholders desire to see Company resources
invested in our key Metal Projects and not necessarily invested
into other resource companies through equity investments undertaken
by our Asset Trading division.
The Board are therefore of the opinion that no new funds should
be allocated to making further investments unless they are derived
out of the profits from the Asset Trading division and in any
event, should only be allocated to investments of strategic
importance. An example of a strategic investment would be to use
the profits to exercise warrants that are in the money. Profits
generated by the Asset Trading division will be primarily allocated
towards financing existing Metal Projects.
In Summation:
Metal Tiger has, in the Board's opinion, two unique and highly
valuable project development interests in Botswana and Thailand,
and a highly promising exploration interest in Spain.
We intend to aggressively pursue the furtherance of our Metal
Projects division, and proactively articulate to market the
inherent value in each of our interests.
The new Board would like to thank shareholders for their
support.
For further information on the Company, visit:
www.metaltigerplc.com:
Michael McNeilly (Chief Tel: +44 (0)207 099 0738
Executive Officer)
Keith Springall Tel: +44 (0)207 099 0738
(Finance Director &
Company Secretary)
Sean Wyndham-Quin Spark Advisory Partners Tel: +44 (0)
Limited 2033 683 555
Neil Baldwin (Nominated Adviser) www.sparkadvisorypartners.com
Nick Emerson SI Capital Tel: +44 (0)
1483 413 500
Andy Thacker (Joint Broker)
Andrew Monk VSA Capital Limited Tel: +44 (0)
20 3005 5000
Andrew Raca (Joint Broker)
Notes to Editors:
Metal Tiger plc is listed on the London Stock Exchange AIM
Market ("AIM") with the trading code MTR and invests in high
potential mineral projects with a precious and strategic metals
focus.
The Company's target is to deliver a very high return for
shareholders by investing in significantly undervalued and/or high
potential opportunities in the mineral exploration and development
sector timed to coincide, where possible, with a cyclical recovery
in the exploration and mining markets. The Company's key strategic
objective is to ensure the distribution to shareholders of major
returns achieved from disposals.
Metal Tiger's Metal Projects Division is focused on the
development of its key project interests in Botswana, Spain and
Thailand. In Botswana Metal Tiger has a growing interest in the
large and highly prospective Kalahari copper/silver belt. In Spain
Metal Tiger the Company has tungsten and gold interests in the
highly mineralised Extremadura region. In Thailand Metal Tiger has
expanding interests over licences, applications and critical
historical data covering antimony, copper, gold, silver, lead and
zinc opportunities.
The Company has access to a diverse pipeline of new
opportunities focused on the natural resource sector including
physical resource projects, new natural resource centred
technologies and resource sector related fintech opportunities.
Pipeline projects deemed commercially viable may be undertaken by
Metal Tiger or by an ISDX or AIM partner with whom the Company is
engaged.
Metal Tiger also has an Asset Trading Division that holds
various financial instruments for trading purposes including
equities, warrants and royalty income. The aim of the division is
to generate profits to reinvest into the Company's project based
activities.
Note: This announcement contains inside information which is
disclosed in accordance with the Market Abuse Regulation.
View source version on businesswire.com:
http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161208006004/en/
This information is provided by Business Wire
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
December 09, 2016 02:00 ET (07:00 GMT)
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