Bluebird
Merchant Ventures Ltd / EPIC: BMV.L / Market: FTSE / Sector:
Mining
10 July 2024
Bluebird Merchant Ventures
Ltd
('Bluebird' or 'the
Company')
Board
Restructuring
Reduced board to manage new
free carry JV structure to develop gold mining
operations
Bluebird Merchant Ventures Ltd, a
gold company primarily focused on bringing historic mines back into
production, is pleased to announce that it has restructured its
Board of Directors following the implementation of its new free
carry orientated joint venture ('JV') focussed business model.
Executive Director Charles Barclay
and Non-executive Director Clive Sinclair-Poulton are stepping down
with immediate effect. Jonathan Morley-Kirk remains as
Non-executive Chairman while Colin Patterson will move to
Non-executive Director. Aidan Bishop, who was instrumental in
signing the JVs with the Company's South Korean and Filipino
partners, will move to interim CEO.
The Company has adopted a JV
business model to mitigate project risks and reduce development
obligations while retaining exposure to its high-grade gold assets.
In this model, local partners contribute capital and local
expertise, while Bluebird offers a deep knowledge that encompasses
all aspects of mining. This structure guarantees that each asset
follows its optimal development path.
In line with this, the Company has
reduced its Board to better reflect its advisory/consultancy
obligations to the JVs and lower its corporate overheads.
Additionally, Bluebird aims to change its name whilst retaining its
ticker; further details will be provided in the upcoming Notice of
AGM.
In South Korea, the Gubong project,
with an estimated 1.3 million ounces of gold, is being advanced to
production with a consortium of South Korean businessmen investing
US$5 million to acquire up to 60% ownership. In the Philippines,
the Company has a JV with a local partner who brings decades of
mining experience and is investing approximately US$2 million to
secure 60% ownership of Batangas and provide Bluebird with a free
carry to mine construction. The Board is currently exploring a
similar structure for its Kochang Gold & Silver Project, also
in South Korea, and hopes to provide further details
soon.
Bluebird Executive Director
and Interim CEO Aidan Bishop said, "I would like to start by
thanking Charlie, who has spent five decades in the mining
industry, for his dedication to Bluebird, and
Clive, who has
spent nigh on 50 years of active involvement in the City, for his
invaluable contribution to the Company. Their corporate and
technical experience has been instrumental in developing our
exciting high-grade gold portfolio and we wish them every success
in their future endeavours. I would also like to thank Colin for
his unwavering stewardship and am delighted that he will continue
to offer his technical insights in his new role as a Non-executive
Director.
"We look forward to working with our JV partners to develop
the Gubong and Batangas gold projects. The new structure of the
project companies means that the local investors in each provide
finance, which is a cumulative c. US$7 million, management and as
well as corporate and planning expertise at local, district and
governmental levels, while Bluebird provides billable consultancy
and technical expertise. Accordingly, a slimline Board better
reflects the input needed by Bluebird while enabling us to reduce
our corporate overheads.
"We are already seeing positive outcomes from this new
arrangement and aim to replicate the strategy at our second project
in South Korea, Kochang. In this regard, our project manager,
Graeme Fulton, a mining engineer with over 30 years of industry
experience, and I met with our prospective partners last week and
agreements are now in the final drafting stage."
**ENDS**
For
further information please visit https://bluebirdmv.com or
contact:
Jonathan
Morley-Kirk Bluebird Merchant Ventures Ltd
Email: jmk@bluebirdmv.com
Nick Emerson
SI Capital
Tel:
01483413500
About Bluebird
Bluebird Merchant Ventures Ltd
(BMV.L) is a London listed South Korea-focused resources company
centred on bringing historically producing gold mines back into
production. The Company, led by a team of proven mine
rehabilitation experts, currently has two 100% owned licensed high
grade narrow vein mining projects, the Kochang Gold and Silver
Project ('Kochang') and the Gubong Gold Project ('Gubong'), which
each have a defined route to low cost/ low capex production with a
cumulative target of producing 100,000 oz + Au per
annum.
The management team has invested
cUS$2 million personally into the Company and believe, following
analysis of historic production and exploration data, as well as
extensive sampling, geological, geophysical, and engineering
studies, there is potential for in excess of 1.5 million oz of
mineable gold in its Korean projects alone.
Kochang is an epithermal vein
deposit with parallel vertical ore bodies covering 8.3 sq km that
reportedly produced 110,000 oz of gold and 5.9 million oz of silver
between 1961 and 1975. Consisting of a gold and silver mine,
there are currently four main veins and several parallel subsidiary
veins vein which have been identified, as well as a newly
identified cross-cutting vein. Historic drilling indicates the
veins continue to depth below the current 150m mine and mapping
shows the veins on surface providing potential above and below the
old workings. The veins extend to the NE providing a strike length
of 2.5km with 600m between the two mines not exploited. There
is potential to expand operations to the southwest/northeast and to
depth, as well as exploit the already mined areas. The total
resource potential is between 550,000 and 700,000 tonnes, with a
range of grades between 5.2 g/t to 6.6 g/t gold, and 27.3 g/t to
34.8 g/t silver. Following the granting of a Mountain Use
permit, there is an estimated 6-to-9-month development time to
trial mining.
Gubong, which was historically the
second largest gold mine in South Korea has 9 granted tenements
covering c.25 sq km. Gubong is moderately dipping with 9
veins extending 500m below surface and known to extend at least a
further 250m. However, the production opportunity for Bluebird
prior to looking at deepening the mine is the 25 levels already
developed with all the remnants and unmined areas left by the
original miners. The 25 levels extend over 120km in total
length which indicates the size of the opportunity. The Korea
Resources Corporation ('KORES') estimated 2.34M tonnes at some
7.3g/t Au garnered from 57 drill holes over 17,715.3 metres.
With additional sampling, mapping, pit modelling and grade
analysis, plus the fact that Gubong is an orogenic deposit, which
typically have a depth of 2km compared to the current depth of
500m, the Board believe it has a geological potential of 1 million
+ oz Au in-situ, plus an estimated additional 300,000 oz Au from
satellite ore bodies.
Additionally, the Company has the
highly prospective Batangas Gold Exploration Project in the
Philippines, where it has an agreement with a Philippine company,
whose owners have decades of experience in mining, to develop the
Project. The JV covers the entire Batangas Project area,
which has a current JORC compliant resource of 440,000 ounces,
including a maiden ore reserve of 128,000 ounces (including silver
credits). Exploration expenditure to the tune of c.$20m has already
been invested. Work is focused on completing exploration and
environmental work programmes initially targeting the high-grade
Lobo area, although there is excellent exploration potential across
the licence with high-grade targets already identified and 14km of
identified mineralised structures. The staged agreement is
based on the JV partner achieving defined development goals and
provides Bluebird with a free carry on the development of Batangas
with a view to advancing to construction.