Bluebird
Mining Ventures Ltd / EPIC: BMV.L / Market: FTSE / Sector:
Mining
30 September 2024
Bluebird Mining Ventures
Ltd
('Bluebird' or 'the
Company')
Funding
Financing structure agreed
with supportive shareholder & concurrent equity offering to
existing shareholders
Bluebird Mining Ventures Ltd, a gold
project development company, is pleased to announce that Catalyse
Capital Ltd ('Catalyse'), a long running and supportive shareholder
of Bluebird, and nominated co investees (together 'the Parties'),
have entered into a binding term sheet to provide a loan facility
of up to £350,000 to the Company to support its mine development
activities in South Korea and the Philippines. Additionally,
the Board and certain advisors have agreed to convert fees
outstanding into equity of the Company, underlining their support
for Bluebird and belief in the underlying value of the project
portfolio.
Bluebird has a Joint Venture
development model in place with local in-country partners in South
Korea and the Philippines, providing c.US$9 million to advance its
high-grade gold mines to production, providing a free carry for the
Company. With the current price of its shares trading at what
the Board believes to be a material disconnect to the Company's
fundamental value, the Company has chosen to implement a loan
agreement with supportive shareholders as the most effective and
non-dilutive financing option.
Proposed Loan
Under the terms of the Loan,
Catalyse and nominated co investees are providing an unsecured loan
of up to £350,000 to Bluebird. Concurrently with this
funding, the Company is also conducting an equity raise ("the
Placing"), which is anticipated to commence on 30 September 2024 at
a price of 1p per share through a book building exercise that will
conclude on 4 October 2024. The Placing has an attached one-for-one
warrant with an exercise price of 1.25p per share and a 12 month
life. These warrants carry an accelerator clause whereby, if
the 10 day Volume Weighted Average Price (VWAP) is above 1.5p per
share for 10 consecutive days, then the holder must either exercise
the warrant or it becomes void. Any net cash sums raised in
the Placing will be netted on a pro rata basis against the loan
capital to be drawn, reducing the total loan
commitment.
Board Participation in Equity Raise
Illustrating their belief in
Bluebird's materially undervalued status, the current Board and
other advisors are converting their total fee accruals into equity
on the same terms as the Placing, full details of which will be
announced in the results of the Placing and the associated equity
issuance.
Loan Terms
The Loan will be disbursed in 12
equal monthly tranches commencing on 10 October 2024. It will
mature on 1 Dec 2025 (the Repayment Date), carry a fixed coupon of
15% on each drawn sum and is payable on the Repayment
Date.
As part of the Loan, 37.5 million
warrants ("Underwriter Warrants") are being issued by Bluebird to
Catalyse and co-investees, the terms being a life of 3 years from 1
October 2024 with an exercise price of 1.5p per share. Should the
warrants be exercised in whole or part during the term of the Loan
(at the sole discretion of Catalyse and the nominated investees),
it is agreed between the Parties and Bluebird that the warrant
payment proceeds will not be called for by the Company but shall
instead be netted against the repayment of the pro rata drawn
Loan.
Broker Option/Placing participation
The Company plans to extend an
opportunity to current shareholders, via the Winterflood Retail
Access Platform ("WRAP"), to participate in the Placing element of
the Funding on the same terms as the Board. The Company will
provide further details regarding the WRAP offer shortly.
Shareholders can also contact the Company's broker Si Capital,
whose details are below. Shareholders can view the Company's most
recent presentation via the following link.
https://bluebirdmv.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Investor-Meet-Presentaion-June-24.pdf
Bluebird Executive Director and Interim CEO Aidan Bishop
said, "Catalyse has been a
long-standing supporter of Bluebird and we welcome this loan
agreement as a de facto underwriting of the current equity value,
to provide ongoing working capital. The loan structure allows for
us to receive capital without having to utilise the equity capital
markets, where we believe a potential funding would be at a
significant discount to the current price and therefore
unnecessarily dilutive. Furthermore, we believe that the
current share price is presently not reflecting the material
progress we have made in recent months. This includes the signing
of two farm ins for our high-grade Korean gold mines, providing a
further US$7million in project development capital and the
implementation of a reduced cost structure.
"We now have three gold projects
with c. US$9mm funding committed from our local JV partners who
recognise the potential of the assets. The strategy remains to
develop the portfolio to production, with the aim of becoming a
producing entity with a long-term cumulative production target in
excess of 100,000 oz Au per annum. We would like to thank Catalyse
for their continued support and are delighted to work with all our
shareholders in a manner that is not value destructive, to finance
the Company through to expected initial production from our Korean
assets. We hope that progress on the ground will provide a rerating
for our stock price for the benefit of all stakeholders and look
forward to updating the market on positive developments as they
materialise."
Catalyse Capital said, "We
remain a staunch supporter of Bluebird as it advances its portfolio
of high-grade gold projects in South Korea and the
Philippines. As a large holder of stock and a previous
supplier of material capital, our interests are completely in sync
with current shareholders and the management of Bluebird.
With their JV model in place providing a free carry on asset
development and a reduced cost structure, the loan is to provide
the much reduced working capital needed, in order to fund ongoing
overhead while we await expected developments on the ground to
trigger a re-rating of the stock price over the ensuing
months.
"As with a number of our other large
holdings in the small cap market in recent months, we are not
prepared to see material equity value simply diluted away through
the usual discounted placings, which sadly are all too commonplace
in London that bedevil and undermine the marketplace and so harming
shareholders unnecessarily. We are confident that this funding
facility will allow the equity of Bluebird to follow the same
positive trajectory of our most recent financings in the UK small
cap arena, which were structured on a similar basis."
This announcement contains inside
information for the purposes of article 7 of the market abuse
regulation EU 596/2014 ("MAR").
**ENDS**
For
further information please visit https://bluebirdmv.com or
contact:
Jonathan
Morley-Kirk Bluebird Mining Ventures Ltd
Email: jmk@bluebirdmv.com
Nick Emerson
SI Capital
Tel:
01483413500
About Bluebird
London listed Bluebird Mining
Ventures Ltd is focused on developing high grade, low capex gold
projects. With a cumulative estimated 1.8M oz Au across three
projects, including two historic mines in South Korea and a
development project in the Philippines, the Company looks to JV its
assets with local partners to provide free carry structures to
advance its assets to production.
Bluebird recognised the most
effective strategy to develop projects in South Korea and the
Philippines involved adopting a Joint Venture model; by securing
local partners with in-country operational knowledge and investment
capital at the project level, assets can be advanced to production
on a de-risked basis.
The Company has three JV's providing
a cumulative c.US$9m investment: US$5m for the development of the
historic Gubong Gold Mine and US$2m for the Kochang Gold and Silver
Mine, in South Korea and c.US$2m (funding to a production decision)
for the Batangas Gold Project in the Philippines. With committed
development capital at the project level, the Company has free
carries to production/mine construction on all its projects, which
reduces its reliance on the international capital
markets.
Bluebird continues to provide
technical assistance to these projects, utilising its
internationally experienced mining team, which has a track record
of bringing gold projects into production across Southeast
Asia. Both JV parties recognise each sides competencies and
the mutual belief that together they can bring the projects into
production and generate significant value for all stakeholders.
Importantly the management team has personally invested cUS$2
million into the Company, highlighting their belief in the quality
of the portfolio.
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.
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.
Batangas is a 1,160-hectare licence
with a 25-year Mineral Production Sharing Agreement ('MPSA')
granted. The Project has a current JORC compliant resource of
440,000 ounces, including a maiden ore reserve of 128,000 ounces
(including silver credits) as well as multiple additional targets
providing extensive resource upside. 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 1,164-hectares Lobo licence. This has an
initial Probable JORC Compliant Ore Reserves of 171,000 tons at 6.6
g/t for 36,000 ounces of gold excluding silver credits based
primarily on the South West Breccia ('SWB') area of the licence
that can be mined in the first 18 months of any operation.
There is an Indicated resource of 82,000 oz Au that is perceived as
easily convertible. Additionally, the area has multiple
epithermal and high-grade targets already identified for resource
expansion with 15km of identified mineralised structures with
results across the nine identified targets yielding excellent
results. These include 2.1m @14.4g/t Au and 3m at 12.1g/t at
West Drift, which already has an Indicated and Inferred resource of
350,000t at 3 g/t Au, 8.35m at 18.3 g/t Au and 6.0m at 31.2 g/t Au
located immediately west of the SWB Extension, 19m surface channel
sample with intersections of 19m grading 9.8 g/t Au at Ulupong and
trenching at Limestone Target yielded 3.5m at 25.9 g/t Au including
1.5m at 56.8 g/t Au.