Announcement PDF RNS Number : 0877Y Alba Mineral Resources PLC 03 May 2019 Alba Mineral Resources plc ("Alba" or "the Company") Final Results for the year ended 30 November 2018 The Board of Alba Mineral Resources plc is pleased to report the results for the year ended 30 November 2018. References to the "Company" or "Alba" are to Alba Mineral Resources plc and references to the "Group" are to Alba collectively with its Subsidiary Companies. INTRODUCTION This year has seen a period of sustained and successful work across our mining projects and oil and gas investments, as we seek to push our assets further up the value curve. In the summer of 2018 we embarked on an extensive programme of field work in north-west Greenland, at our Thule Black Sands ("TBS") and Inglefield Projects. At Clogau, in north Wales, we kicked off a regional exploration programme, the first of its kind in the long history of the Dolgellau Gold Belt. And we decided to renew our licence at our Limerick Base Metals Project, following a fresh look at the historical data and geology which had pointed up a number of interesting drill targets. The summer of 2018 also saw the start of the extended well test programme at Horse Hill. The testing programme has been a success, not least given the fact that, as I write, it is still ongoing. The test production programme has been extended for several months longer than was originally planned when we commenced the programme last June, and this is testimony to how successful the programme has been in consistently delivering stable rates of production from both the Portland sandstone and the Kimmeridge limestones. I set out below my thoughts on the outlook for Alba in the year ahead, followed by a detailed review of activities. OUTLOOK This coming year we expect to hit key milestones on our projects, not least: · at TBS, where we expect to release the results of the maiden mineral resource assessment this quarter; · at Amitsoq, where we intend to undertake a drilling campaign this summer with the objective of confirming graphite zones and potentially defining a maiden mineral resource estimate at our exceptionally high-grade graphite deposit; · at our Limerick base metals project, where we expect to be drilling within the next month; and · at Clogau, where we intend to complete the exploration of the high-priority gold targets running the length of the Dolgellau Gold Belt, and at the same time to make substantial progress towards submitting a full-scale planning application to re-open the Clogau-St David's Mine. In respect of the outlook for our oil and gas investments in the Weald Basin, while we are not in a position to determine the design and execution of technical work at Horse Hill and Brockham, those decisions being in the hands of their respective operators, we continually track the progress of activities there and keep the value of our investments under review, including whether we should continue to fund those investments or instead seek to realise value from either a partial or total exit. The results of our work this year, when consolidated with the body of knowledge gained in prior years, will inform our decisions about where we should focus our efforts in moving one or more of our mining projects out of the exploration and into the development phase, to join Clogau-St David's which is already a development asset. As a diversified mineral exploration company, our modus operandi has always been to seek out exploration assets which have serious potential to become development and production assets. In that respect, I expect the coming year to be a defining one for Alba. REVIEW OF MINING ACTIVITIES Clogau Gold Project (Wales, UK) In December 2017 we acquired a 49 per cent interest in Gold Mines of Wales Limited ("GMOW"), the ultimate owner of the Clogau Gold Project in north Wales (the "Clogau Project"). In August 2018, we increased our stake to 90% and entered into a put and call option agreement over the remaining 10%. The Clogau Project comprises the Clogau-St David's Gold Mine ("Clogau-St David's" or the "Mine") and includes over 300 highly prospective gold targets and former gold workings within a total option area of 107 km². The Dolgellau Gold Belt in which the Project is situated has produced about 131,000 oz of gold, by far the most of any region within the United Kingdom. Most of this gold has been exploited from Clogau-St David's. At Alba we are of the view that there is great potential to find unworked veins at Clogau-St David's, containing gold of similar grades to historic production in the area. Our focus is on bringing Clogau-St David's back into production while at the same time making a significant push into the regional exploration of the wider Project area. Early work undertaken by Alba during the year included the construction of a 3D geological model for the entire licence area and existing mine workings, detailed underground surveying and the generation of a preliminary mine plan and primary targets for regional gold exploration. The first phase of regional exploration was focused on undertaking soil sampling and geophysical surveying above the historic mine workings. That work confirmed the presence of gold mineralisation across the full strike length of the mine area, and also identified new targets outside the mine area, and this has given us great confidence in the suitability of that exploration technique to this type of gold project. As a result, we have continued to roll out the soil sampling programme across our extensive regional exploration targets. The highlights of the preliminary results from that wider campaign, announced on 29 April 2019, after the end of the financial year, included: · multiple gold-in-soil anomalies being identified away from the existing mine area and not associated with historic mine workings, averaging 0.006-0.17 ppm (at a 0.005 ppm cut-off), including one sample at 0.65 ppm (0.65 g/t); · average grades for two of the new anomalies being well above the average gold-in soil grades for Clogau-St David's and the other historic mine areas; and · gold mineralisation being confirmed across ~4 miles along the strike extent of the Dolgellau Gold Belt. We are very pleased with these results, which provide substantial support for our belief in the huge, untapped potential of the Dolgellau Gold Belt. Thule Black Sands Project (Greenland) Thule Black Sands ("TBS") is Alba's high-grade ilmenite project on the coast of north-west Greenland. Through our research in 2017 we identified an opportunity to apply for a significant stretch of potentially mineralised beach sand coastline which was not under licence to other operators. The source rock for these heavy mineral sands, which have been deposited over several miles of coastline, is the Dundas Formation, a geological range which has been subject to erosion over millions of years and led to the deposit of these surface accumulations of "black" heavy mineral sands which are rich in ilmenite, the primary source of titanium dioxide. Our initial sampling at TBS in 2017 confirmed both a high Total Heavy Mineral content ("THM") averaging 46.4% and a high in-situ ilmenite content averaging 10%. Our 2018 field programme was an extensive campaign which saw us send out a multi-disciplinary team to north-west Greenland to carry out widespread drilling, mapping and sampling across the licence along with first-year environmental baseline studies also undertaken with an eye on a future Environmental Impact Assessment application, this being a necessary pre-condition to the grant of an exploitation licence. We also sent an independent Competent Person to site to inspect our work activities for resource estimation purposes. Following the completion of the field work, the extensive samples from the drilling campaign were sent to accredited laboratories for analysis and a geological model was developed for the project. This work will underpin the resource estimation assessment to be made by the independent Competent Person. We hope to be able to announce the conclusion of that work shortly. Amitsoq Project (Greenland) Our Amitsoq graphite project is located in southern Greenland and includes a former graphite mine on Amitsoq island as well as the Kalaaq deposit on the mainland, a new discovery made by Alba in 2017. Our sampling of the graphite beds has revealed exceptionally high-grade deposits of between 25% and 28% Total Graphitic Carbon ("TGC"). During the year, we reported the assays from the new Kalaaq discovery which average 25.6% TGC, with a maximum content of 29% TGC. In March 2018 we announced that our exploration licence had been renewed for a further five years. Further metallurgical testwork which we carried out during the year confirmed that a marketable grade concentrate of up to 97.3% can be produced from the graphite at Amitsoq. In September 2018 drill pads were constructed at Amitsoq in anticipation of a drilling campaign which we are intending to undertake this year. The objective of the drilling will be to confirm the location and extent of the graphite structures we have previously modelled. However, it is also possible that, provided the drilling in all cases successfully intersects graphite in accordance with the model, we may be able to report a maiden resource estimate for the project after this end of this campaign. Inglefield Project (Greenland) Our Inglefield Project comprises two exploration licences in north-west Greenland, in a region known as Inglefield Land where extensive exploration has been carried out by previous operators as well as by GEUS, the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland. GEUS has posited that Inglefield Land has the potential for hosting copper-zinc volcanogenic massive sulphide ("VMS") deposits, which are associated with and created by volcanic-associated hydrothermal events in submarine environments. Previous extensive surface sampling has reported anomalous copper (up to 1.39%), gold (up to 1.7g/t), cobalt (up to 0.16%), vanadium and nickel values at Inglefield Land. Our 2018 field programme at Inglefield was undertaken at the same time as our drilling campaign at TBS, and as a result we were able to benefit from logistical and manpower savings. The assay results from this first campaign at Inglefield confirmed the presence of significant multielement anomalies in an assemblage of copper-gold-silver-molybdenum which is often an indicator of the presence of a porphyry copper or Iron Oxide Copper-Gold ("IOCG") system. These deposits are typically polymetallic and very large in scale. To build on those results, over the winter we commissioned independent South African consultants, TECT Geological Consulting and XPotential Geoscientific Consulting, experts in structural geology and geophysical data interpretation respectively, to compile all the historical data sets for Inglefield Land and to carry out a prospectivity analysis in order to refine the key targets for our 2019 field season. Armed with all of this valuable data, we are in the process of finalising the design of our field programme for the coming season at Inglefield. The forthcoming campaign will be a highly systematic and well-informed programme of work in this hugely prospective and under-explored region. Limerick Project (Ireland) Our Limerick Project is highly prospective for zinc, lead and silver and is only 10 km away from and part of the same target unit as Glencore's Pallas Green zinc discovery. During the year, we commissioned an independent review of all historical data for the Limerick Project. This concluded that our Limerick Project is significantly under-explored compared to the level of activity in the Irish Zinc Ore Field as a whole, with only five holes ever having been drilled on our licence during previous periods of exploration. Our independent consultants highlighted five high-priority zinc-lead targets which they considered suitable for immediate drilling. As a result of this analysis, we took the decision to renew our prospecting licence. The renewal is effective until May 2020, on condition that we undertake this forthcoming round of drilling. Subject only to the receipt of a final administrative permit, we expect to be able to commence a short drilling programme at Limerick within the next few weeks. REVIEW OF OIL AND GAS ACTIVITIES Horse Hill Oil Field (England) The Horse Hill-1 well ("HH-1") is located within onshore exploration licence PEDL 137, on the northern side of the Weald Basin near Gatwick Airport in southern England. Alba owns 18.1% of the issued share capital of Horse Hill Developments Limited ("HHDL"), the special purpose company which owns a 65% participating interest and is the Operator of Licence PEDL 137 and the adjacent Licence PEDL 246. The remaining 35% participating interest in the PEDL 137 and PEDL 246 licences is held by US-based Tellurian Inc. Alba's effective interest in the licences is therefore 11.765%, which makes us the third largest participant in the Horse Hill oil field after UKOG and Tellurian. In 2018 HHDL received all the relevant regulatory permissions to carry out a 150-day, extended well test ("EWT") programme, which commenced in June 2018. The initial Portland test phase was completed in September, with testing moving on to the Kimmeridge limestones in October. Late last year we reported that the Operator had declared the Portland sandstone to be commercially viable, and that total oil production from the EWT had reached 13,920 barrels with gross revenues of $1.1m. Since the balance sheet date, based on the continued Kimmeridge test production and the announcement of Portland commercial viability, the Company has been informed that the Operator's plans are to continue HH-1 Portland EWT production until the expiry of the current EWT permit in May 2019, when activities will focus on drilling planned new wells, for which planning consents and environmental permits are in place. Ongoing oil sales revenues will be put towards the funding of capital costs of the 2019 well development programme. Aggregate oil production volume from the Kimmeridge and Portland zones was reported to have reached a milestone of 40,000 barrels earlier this month. Brockham Oil Field (England) Alba holds a 5% interest in Production Licence 235 ("PL 235"), the Brockham Oil Field, which is located just to the north-west of the Horse Hill Project. There are two wells on the licence, the previously producing BRX2Y well as well as the BRX4Z well which was drilled in 2017 to evaluate the possibility that the Horse Hill Kimmeridge reservoirs extend into the Brockham licence area. In March 2018 we announced that production had resumed from the BRX2Y well. Although there were no significant changes from pre shut-in production levels, this move allowed the Operator, Angus Energy, to re-start site operations and test all existing equipment prior to flow-testing of the BRX4Z well. The BRX4Z well test began shortly after the reporting date, in December 2018. The Operator reported that the well had flowed naturally to surface with flow rates rising steadily as the test continued, but that it had also become apparent that part of the perforated interval was producing water which was inhibiting significant oil flow. Testing was suspended so that an engineering programme could be designed to isolate this water zone. In the past few weeks we reported that the Operator had commenced workover operations at Brockham, and we await further news of the success of the resumed programme. Corporate and Financial During the year Alba completed three fundraising rounds, raising a total of £2.3 million before expenses. Of these funds, approximately £1 million was committed to meet cash calls in respect of our oil and gas investments, the lion's share of which went towards funding the long-term EWT programme at Horse Hill. A further £0.8 million was spent on our mining exploration activities, most notably in carrying out an extensive drilling campaign at TBS in north-west Greenland, with the balance of funding being used to meet our operating and administrative costs. The overheads associated with running an AIM-quoted company are not inconsiderable, so our achievement in putting close to 80% of the level of the funds we raised in the year towards real spend on our exploration and development activities is impressive and gives us the very best chance of adding value to our projects and, therefore, of adding value for our shareholders. Our financial statements at year end show a very healthy 70% increase in the strength of our balance sheet, with net assets now standing at £8,466,188 as against net assets of £5,008,264 at the end of the previous year. After the period end, I and my fellow Director, Mike Nott, subscribed for shares in Alba worth £45,000 in total at a subscription price of £0.003, being around 28% above the last closing price prior to the subscription. Given the large number of projects we are involved in at Alba, we are more often than not in a regulatory closed period for directors' dealings, which means that we are not allowed in those periods to subscribe for or otherwise to buy shares in Alba. But as soon as we were comfortably outside of a closed period, we proceeded to make this subscription. We also elected to acquire the shares at a substantial premium to the prevailing share price, as a show of support and a clear demonstration of our belief that the market continues to significantly undervalue our assets, certainly when looked from the perspective of our share price performance over the past 12 months. Though it does also have to be said that this has been a very challenging 12 months for junior mining stocks across the boards, not just for Alba. I was pleased to host our first shareholder conference call last summer, together with our first shareholder evening in December 2018. The level of participation and engagement at both events was really high, which was fantastic to see, and further events will be scheduled during the coming months. We are also well aware of the need to continue to promote our activities to the wider investment market. During the year we took a stand at the UK Investor Show, the UK's largest annual investment conference, where I gave a presentation. I also attended PDAC in Toronto, the world's largest annual mining conference, where I caught up with the key contractors for our Greenland operations and also took the opportunity to sit down with members of the Greenland Government delegation to discuss our projects and other related developments in the Greenland mining sector. Events after the reporting period Key announcements after the reporting period are noted in the review of activities, above. Finally, on behalf of the Board I would like to take this opportunity to thank Alba shareholders for their ongoing support. I have met a considerable number of our shareholders at various events over the past 12 months, and I am always struck by how engaged our shareholder base is and how knowledgeable shareholders are about our projects. Our shareholders can be assured that Alba's management team is fully focused on the objective of unlocking real and sustained value from our project portfolio. We hope and expect to see the fruits of that labour in the months ahead. George Frangeskides Executive Chairman This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of EU Regulation 596/2014. For further information, please contact: Alba Mineral Resources plc George Frangeskides, Executive Chairman Cairn Financial Advisers LLP (Nomad) James Caithie / Liam Murray First Equity Limited (Broker) Jason Robertson +44 20 907 4297 +44 20 7213 0880 +44 20 7374 2212 Yellow Jersey PR (Financial PR/ IR) Tim Thompson / Harriet Jackson / Henry Wilkinson alba@yellowjerseypr.com +44 77 1071 8649 CONSOLIDATED INCOME STATEMENT for the year ended 30 November 2018 2018 £ - 2017 £ - Gross loss Administrative expenses Impairment of deferred exploration expenditure (885,314) - (649,125) (569,218) Operating loss Revaluation of investment Share of net loss of joint venture (885,314) 825,533 (15,235) (1,218,343) 700,000 - Loss before tax Taxation (75,106) - (518,343) - Loss for the year (75,106) (518,343) Attributable to: Equity holders of the parent Non-controlling interests (72,823) (2,283) (227,699) (290,644) (75,106) (518,343) (0.003) pence (0.012) pence Revenue Cost of sales Loss per ordinary share Basic and diluted CONSOLIDATED STATEMENT OF COMPREHENSIVE INCOME for the year ended 30 November 2018 2018 £ Loss after tax (75,106) Items that may subsequently be reclassified to profit or loss: (2,707) - Foreign exchange movements 2017 £ (518,343) 4,526 Total comprehensive loss (77,813) (513,817) Total comprehensive loss attributable to: Equity holders of the parent Non-controlling interests (75,530) (2,283) (223,173) (290,644) (513,817) (77,813) CONSOLIDATED STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL POSITION as at 30 November 2018 2018 £ Non-current assets 85,000 3,076,783 Intangible fixed assets 5,430,000 Investments 7,161 Available for sale assets 1,145,336 3,619,465 14,335 Total non-current assets 8,598,944 4,779,136 Current assets Trade and other receivables Cash and cash equivalents 61,894 585,795 35,276 626,939 Total current assets 647,689 662,215 Current liabilities Trade and other payables Financial liabilities (493,195) (287,250) (180,014) (253,073) Total current liabilities (780,445) (433,087) Net current assets / (liabilities) (132,756) 229,128 Net assets 8,466,188 5,008,264 Capital and reserves Called up share capital Share premium account Warrant reserve Retained losses Merger reserve 4,099,233 6,786,382 624,039 (3,167,943) 200,000 3,086,246 4,655,702 231,969 (3,095,120) 200,000 2017 £ Foreign currency reserve Equity attributable to equity holders of the parent Non-controlling interests 190,978 193,685 8,732,689 5,272,482 (266,501) (264,218) Total equity 8,466,188 5,008,264 CONSOLIDATED STATEMENT OF CHANGES IN EQUITY For the year ended 30 November 2018 Warrant reserve Share capital Share premium £ 2,654,703 £ 3,472,671 Loss for the period Translation differences - - - (227,699) - - 4,526 (227,699) 4,526 (290,644) - (518,343) 4,526 Comprehensive loss for the period - - - (227,699) - 4,526 (223,173) (290,644) (513,817) 431,543 - 1,245,931 (62,900) - 127,696 - (441,825) 441,825 - - 1,677,474 (62,900) 127,696 - - 1,677,474 (62,900) 127,696 - 3,086,246 4,655,702 231,969 (3,095,120) 200,000 193,685 5,272,482 (264,218) 5,008,264 Profit / (loss) for the period Translation differences - - - (72,823) - - (2,707) (72,823) (2,707) (2,283) - (75,106) (2,707) Comprehensive loss for the period - - - (72,823) - (2,707) (75,530) (2,283) (77,813) Shares and warrants issued Share issue costs Equity settled share-based payments 1,012,987 - 2,253,680 (123,000) - 148,914 243,156 - - - 3,415,581 (123,000) 243,156 - 3,415,581 (123,000) 243,156 At 30 November 2018 4,099,233 6,786,382 624,039 (3,167,943) 200,000 190,978 8,732,689 (266,501) 8,466,188 At 1 December 2016 Shares issued Share issue costs Equity settled share-based payments Transfer on expiry of warrants At 30 November 2017 Profit and Merger Foreign Attributable Non loss reserve currency to equity controlling reserve holders interest of parents £ £ £ £ £ £ 546,098 (3,309,246) 200,000 189,159 3,753,385 26,426 CONSOLIDATED CASH FLOW STATEMENT For the year ended 30 November 2018 2018 £ Cash flows from operating activities Operating loss Consulting fees settled in shares Share option charge Provision for impairment 2017 £ (885,314) (1,218,343) 65,000 127,695 243,156 611,168 7,174 Total £ 3,779,811 Foreign exchange revaluation adjustment Increase/(decrease) in creditors Decrease/(increase) in debtors (2,707) 120,032 (26,619) 4,526 23,702 (20,015) Net cash used in operating activities (544,278) (406,267) Cash flows from investing activities Payments for deferred exploration expenditure Cash on acquisition of subsidiary Investments (733,527) 44,661 (985,002) (356,616) (449,049) Net cash used in investing activities (1,673,868) (805,665) Cash flows from financing activities Proceeds from the issue of shares and warrants Costs of issue 2,300,000 (123,000) 1,233,431 (62,900) Net cash generated from financing activities 2,177,000 1,170,531 Net increase in cash and cash equivalents Cash and cash equivalents at beginning of period (41,144) 626,939 (41,401) 668,340 Cash and cash equivalents at end of year 585,795 626,939 Non-cash transactions Significant non cash transactions related to the purchase of the Clogau gold project. Accruals includes capital items of £227,326 (2017: £35,461). NOTES 1. BASIS OF PREPARATION Alba Mineral Resources plc is a public limited company incorporated and domiciled in England & Wales, whose shares are publicly traded on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange plc. The registered office address is 6th Floor 60 Gracechurch Street, London, United Kingdom, EC3V 0HR. The financial information set out in this announcement does not constitute the statutory accounts of the Group for the years ended 30 November 2018 or 30 November 2017. The financial information has been extracted from the statutory accounts of the Group for the years ended 30 November 2018 and 30 November 2017. The auditor, Nexia Smith & Williamson, has reported on the statutory accounts for the years ended 30 November 2018 and 2017; the audit reports were unqualified and did not contain statements under either section 498(2) or 498(3) of the Companies Act 2006. However, in their report on the statutory accounts for both the year ended 30 November 2018 and 30 November 2017 the auditor drew attention to the material uncertainty which exists with respect to the ability of the group to continue as a going concern, as explained below. The consolidated financial statements have been prepared on the historical cost basis, save for the revaluation of certain financial assets. There were no changes to the Group's accounting policies for the year ended 30 November 2018 as compared to those published in the statutory financial statements for the year ended 30 November 2017. This preliminary announcement was approved by the Board on 3 May 2018. 2. GOING CONCERN Based on financial projections prepared by the directors, the Group's current cash resources are insufficient to enable the Group to meet its recurring outgoings and projected exploration expenditure for the entirety of the next twelve months. However, the directors have a reasonable expectation that the Group will continue to be able to meet its commitments for the foreseeable future by raising funds when required from the equity capital markets. The Company may also consider future joint venture funding arrangements in order to share the costs of the development of its exploration assets, or to consider divesting of certain of its assets and realising cash proceeds in that way in order to support the balance of its exploration and investment portfolio, though that is not currently the Company's preferred route. In addition, these financial projections take no account of any revenues to be directly received by the Company as a result of oil production at the Brockham oil field. The directors continue to adopt the going concern basis of accounting in preparing the financial statements, but note that there is a material uncertainty over the ability of the Company to fund the recurring and projected expenditure, including development of the Group's exploration assets. If the Company is unable to raise necessary funds, the ability of the Company to continue as a going concern would be in significant doubt and it may be unable to realise its assets and discharge its liabilities in the normal course of business. In particular, the inability to fund the continued development of the Group's exploration assets may result in them becoming impaired and any failure to contribute its share of future exploration and development activities in respect of the oil and gas investments would result in the dilution of the Group's interests in those assets. 3. LOSS PER SHARE Basic profit per share is calculated by dividing the loss attributed to ordinary shareholders of £72,823 (2017: £227,699 loss) by the weighted average number of shares of 2,717,353,000 (2017: 1,949,148,404) in issue during the year. The diluted profit per share calculation is identical to that used for basic profit per share as warrants are not dilutive due to the losses incurred. 4. RELATED PARTY TRANSACTIONS Stirling Corporate Services Limited, a company which George Frangeskides, a Director of the Company, controls, charged the Group £30,319 (2017 - £14,652) for the provision of financial and administrative services. As at the year end, £21,395 (2017 - £nil) was owed to Stirling Corporate Services Limited. Berwick Capital Limited, a company which George Frangeskides, a Director of the Company, controls, loaned the Company a total of £83,000 during the period. The loan was non-interest bearing and was repaid in full 2 months later. The Directors independent of these transactions consider, having consulted with the Company's nominated adviser, that the terms of the transactions are fair and reasonable insofar as its shareholders are concerned. 5. REPORTS AND ACCOUNTS The statutory accounts for the year ended 30 November 2018 were approved by the board of directors on 2 May 2019, will be sent to shareholders of the Company in due course and will be delivered to the Registrar of Companies following the Company's Annual General Meeting. The report and accounts will also be made available on the Company's website: www.albamineralresources.com. The statutory accounts for the year