LONDON, UK / ACCESSWIRE / September 14, 2017 / The Board of SolGold (LSE: SOLG; TSX: SOLG) is pleased to provide all shareholders and interested investors with access to additional information required to be filed in Canada in connection with the Company's financial year ended 30 June 2017.
This additional information is available, together with the Company's audited financial statements, in the Financial Reports section of the Investor Centre on the Company's website: www.solgold.com.au
http://www.rns-pdf.londonstockexchange.com/rns/7504Q_-2017-9-14.pdf
http://www.rns-pdf.londonstockexchange.com/rns/7504Q_1-2017-9-14.pdf
By Order of the Board,
Karl Schlobohm
Company Secretary
CONTACTS:
Mr. Nicholas Mather
SolGold Plc (Executive Director)
Tel: +61 (0) 7 3303 0665
+61 (0) 417 880 448
nmather@SolGold.com.au
Mr. Karl Schlobohm
SolGold Plc (Company Secretary)
Tel:+61 (0) 7 3303 0661
kschlobohm@SolGold.com.au
Mr. Ewan Leggat / Mr. Richard Morrison
SP Angel Corporate Finance LLP (NOMAD and Broker)
Tel: +44 (0) 20 3470 0470
ewan.leggat@spangel.co.uk
Follow us on twitter @SolGold_plc
SolGold is a Brisbane, Australia based, dual AIM and TSX‐listed (SOLG on both exchanges) copper gold exploration and future development company with assets in Ecuador, Solomon Islands and Australia. SolGold's primary objective is to discover and define world‐class copper‐gold deposits. The Board and Management Team have substantial vested interests in the success of the Company as shareholders as well as strong track records in the areas of exploration, mine appraisal, and development, investment, finance and law. SolGold's experience is augmented by state of the art geophysical and modeling techniques and the guidance of porphyry copper and gold expert Dr. Steve Garwin.
SolGold was shortlisted as a nominee for the Mining Journal Explorer Achievement Award for 2016. The Company announced USD54m in capital raisings in September 2016 involving Maxit Capital LP, Newcrest International Ltd and DGR Global Ltd, and a USD41.2m raising in June of 2017 largely from Newcrest International with USD1.2m raised from Ecuadorean investors. All of these raisings were undertaken at substantial premiums to previous raisings, and SolGold currently has circa USD65 million in available cash to continue the exploration and development of its flagship Cascabel Project.
Mr. Craig Jones joined the SolGold Board on 3 March 2017, nominated to the Board of SolGold by Newcrest Mining, now a 14.54% shareholder in SolGold. Mr. Jones is a Mechanical Engineer and is currently the Executive General Manager Wafi-Golpu (Newcrest-Harmony MMJV). He has held various senior management and executive roles within the Newcrest Group, including General Manager Projects, General Manager Cadia Valley Operations, Executive General Manager Projects and Asset Management, Executive General Manager Australian and Indonesian Operations, Executive General Manager Australian Operations and Projects, and Executive General Manager Cadia and Morobe Mining Joint Venture. Prior to joining Newcrest, Mr. Jones worked for Rio Tinto.
Cascabel, SolGold's 85% owned "World Class" ( Refer www.solgold.com.au/cautionary-notice/ ) flagship copper‐gold porphyry project, is located in northern Ecuador on the under‐explored northern section of the richly endowed Andean Copper Belt. SolGold owns 85% of Exploraciones Novomining S.A. ("ENSA") and approximately 5.34% of TSX‐V‐listed Cornerstone Capital Resources ("Cornerstone"), which holds the remaining 15% of ENSA, the Ecuadorian registered company which holds 100% of the Cascabel concession. Subject to the terms of existing agreements, Cornerstone is debt financed by SolGold for its share of costs to completion of a Feasibility Study ("Financing Option").
In terms of repayment, SolGold shall receive 90% of Cornerstone's share of earnings or dividends from ENSA or the Tenement to which Cornerstone would otherwise be entitled until such time as the amounts so received equal the aggregate amount of expenditures incurred by SolGold that, but for the Financing Option, would have been payable by Cornerstone, plus interest thereon from the dates such expenditures were incurred at a rate per annum equal to LIBOR plus 2 per cent until such time as SolGold is fully reimbursed.
The investments by Newcrest for 14.54% of SolGold endorses Ecuador as an exploration and mining destination, the management team at SolGold, the dimension, size and scale of the growing Alpala deposit, and the perspective of Cascabel and its multiple targets. The gold endowment, location, infrastructure, logistics are important competitive advantages offered by the project.
To date, SolGold has completed geological mapping, soil sampling, rock saw channel sampling, geochemical and spectral alteration mapping over 25km2, along with an additional 9km2 of Induced Polarisation and 14km2 Magnetotelluric "Orion" surveys over the Alpala cluster and Aguinaga targets.
SolGold has completed over 44,500m of drilling and expended over USD50M on the program, which includes corporate costs and investments into Cornerstone. This has been accomplished with a workforce of up to 176 Ecuadorean workers and geoscientists, and 6 expatriate Australian geoscientists. The results of 35 holes drilled (including re-drilled holes) and assayed to date have produced some of the greatest drill hole intercepts in porphyry copper-gold exploration history, as indicated by Hole 12 (CSD-16-012) returning 1560m grading 0.59% copper and 0.54 g/t gold including, 1044m grading 0.74% copper and 0.54 g/t gold.
The average grade of all metres drilled to date on the project currently stands at 0.31% copper and 0.26 g/t gold. Intensive diamond drilling is planned for the next 12 months with 10 drill rigs expected to be operational by early 2018, targeting over 90,000m of drilling per annum.
Cascabel is characterised by fifteen (15) identified targets, "World Class" drilling intersections over 1km in length at potentially economic grades, and high copper and gold grades in richer sections, as well as logistic advantages in location, elevation, water supply, proximity to roads, port and power services; and a progressive legislative approach to resource development in Ecuador.
To date, SolGold has drill tested 4 of the 15 targets, being Alpala Northwest, Alpala Central, Hematite Hill, and Alpala Southeast. Currently drill testing of Alpala Northwest, Alpala Central and Alpala Southeast targets is underway, with drill testing of the other priority targets to be considered following the publication of the Company's maiden resource estimate for Alpala, and the finalization of further IP surveying and modeling work currently underway.
The Alpala deposit is open in multiple directions and the mineralized corridor marked for drill testing of the greater Alpala cluster occurs over a 2.2km strike length from Trivinio in the northwest to Cristal in the southeast. The mineralized corridor is known to be prospective over approximately 700m width.
High priority targets within the Alpala cluster, at Moran approximately 700m to the north, and at Aguinaga approximately 2.3km north east, are closely modeled by 3D MVI magnetic signatures that currently encompass over 10Bt of magnetic rock. Based on a strong spatial and genetic relationship between copper sulphides and magnetite, this body of magnetic rock is considered to be highly prospective for significant copper and gold mineralization, and requires drill testing.
SolGold is focussing on extending the dimensions of the Alpala deposit including Alpala Northwest, Hematite Hill, Alpala South East, Cristal, Trivinio, Alpala West, Carmen and Alpala South before completing a resource estimate and then drill testing the other key targets within the Cascabel concession at Aguinaga, Tandayama-America, Alpala West, Carmen, Alpala East, Moran, Parambas, and Chinambicito.
The Company is currently planning further metallurgical testing and completion of an independent Pre-Feasibility Study at Cascabel. SolGold is investigating both high tonnage open cut and underground block caving operations, as well as a high grade / low tonnage initial underground development towards the economic development of the copper gold deposit/s at Cascabel.
Drill hole intercepts have been updated to reflect current commodity prices, using a data aggregation method, defined by copper equivalent cut-off grades and reported with up to 10m internal dilution, excluding bridging to a single sample. Copper equivalent grades are calculated using a gold conversion factor of 0.63, determined using an updated copper price of USD3.00/pound and an updated gold price of USD1300/ounce. True widths of down hole intersections are estimated to be approximately 25-50%.
Following a comprehensive review of the geology and prospectivity of Ecuador, SolGold and its subsidiaries have also applied for additional exploration licenses in Ecuador over a number of promising porphyry copper gold targets throughout the Country. Over 50 such concessions have been granted and announced to date. SolGold is negotiating external funding options which will provide the Company with the ability to have some of these projects fully funded by a third party while focussing on Cascabel.
In Queensland, Australia the Company is evaluating the future exploration plans for the Mt Perry, Rannes and Normanby projects, with drill testing of the Normanby project planned for the coming quarter. Joint venture agreements are being investigated for a joint venture partner to commit funds and carry out exploration to earn an interest in the tenements.
SolGold retains interests in its original theatre of operations, Solomon Islands in the South West Pacific, where the 100% owned, but as yet undrilled, Kuma prospect on the island of Guadalcanal exhibits surface lithocap characteristics which are traditionally indicative of a large metal rich copper gold intrusive porphyry system. SolGold intends in the future to apply intellectual property and experience developed in Ecuador to target additional "World Class" copper gold porphyries at Kuma and other targets in Ecuador and Argentina.
SolGold is based in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. The Company listed on London's AIM Market in 2006, and dual-listed onto the TSX in July 2017 (both exchanges using the ticker code: SOLG) and currently has on issue a total of 1,516,245,686 fully-paid ordinary shares, 31,795,884 share options exercisable at 28p; 9,795,884 share options exercisable at 14p and 46,762,000 share options exercisable at 60p.
SOURCE: SolGold plc
ReleaseID: 475429
