SolGold plc: Holdings in Company
BRISBANE, Jul 18, 2017 - In accordance with the Disclosure and Transparency Rules ("DTR"), SolGold plc ("SolGold" or the "Company") was informed by Cornerstone Capital Resources Inc. ("Cornerstone") on 14 July 2017 that, in fulfilment of the obligations of Rule 5 of the DTR, and as a result of the purchase of shares with voting rights made on 12 July 2017, Cornerstone now holds 154,406,414 ordinary shares in the Company, representing approximately 10.19% of the Company's issued share capital. Cornerstone will acquire an additional 15,750,000 ordinary shares in the Company following the ordinary course of filing documentation clearance required by the TSX Venture Exchange. As a result, Cornerstone will hold 170,156,414 ordinary shares in the Company, representing approximately 11.23% of the Company's issued share capital.
SolGold was also informed by Mr Dmyant (Bob) Sangha on 14 July 2017 that, in fulfilment of the obligations of Rule 5 of the DTR, and as a result of the disposal of shares with voting rights made on 12 July 2017, Mr Dmyant (Bob) Sangha has ceased to be a significant holder of the Company.
By the order of the Board
Karl Schlobohm, Company Secretary
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NOTES TO EDITORS
SolGold is a Brisbane, Australia based, AIM‐listed (SOLG) 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 modelling 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. 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 has circa USD70 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" 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 11% 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.
The investments by Newcrest for 14.54% of SolGold, and the investments into SolGold by Guyana Goldfields, Maxit Capital and its clients, endorses Ecuador as an exploration and mining destination, the management team at SolGold, the dimension, size and scale of the growing Alpala, and the prospectivity 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 39,000m of drilling and expended over USD45.6M 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 26 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 0.32% copper and 0.27 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 Aguinaga target to commence in August 2017.
The Alpala deposit is open in multiple directions and the mineralised 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 mineralised 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 modelled by 3D MVI magnetic signatures that currently encompass over 15Bt 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 mineralisation, and requires drill testing.
SolGold is focussing on extending the dimensions of the Alpala deposit including Hematite Hill, Alpala South East, Cristal, Alpala Northwest and Trivinio before completing a resource statement and drill testing of 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 licences in Ecuador over a number of promising porphyry copper gold targets throughout the Country. 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, under the AIM code 'SOLG' and currently has a total of 1,515,555,686 ordinary shares issued, together with 31,795,884 options exercisable at 28p and 9,795,884 options exercisable at 14p.
Contact
Mr Nicholas Mather (Executive Director)
SolGold plc
nmather@solgold.com.au
Tel: +61 (0) 7 3303 0665, +61 (0) 417 880 448
Mr Karl Schlobohm (Company Secretary)
SolGold plc
kschlobohm@solgold.com.au
Tel: +61 (0) 7 3303 0661
Mr Ewan Leggat / Richard Morrison
SP Angel Corporate Finance LLP (NOMAD and Broker)
Ewan.leggat@spangel.co.uk / richard.morrison@spangel.co.uk
Tel: +44 (0) 20 3470 0470