Katoro shares rise on progress at new joint venture

Gold and nickel exploration and development company Katoro Gold updated the market on its progress and financing at the Blyvoor joint venture, which is the near-term gold production opportunity it announced on 30 January.

The AIM-traded firm said the commercial and technical development of the Blyvoor Project was progressing well, with work done to date reportedly achieving successful outcomes and validating the joint venture’s business plan.

It said good progress had been made on the feasibility work, definitive plant design and related test work to update and optimise historical work.

The joint venture management committee and newly-appointed manager, Graham Briggs, were now in place and overseeing progress.

Under the agreement, Katoro was set to provide a ZAR 15m (£0.79m) loan to the joint venture to fund ongoing development work, with ZAR 5m having already been advanced.

To fund accelerated project development activities, Katoro said it was expecting to advance the remaining ZAR 10m in the near term.

In order to fund the loan facility, and as it had previously announced, Katoro had issued a convertible loan note to SI Capital clients for £0.4m and secured the right to an additional £0.4m through Sanderson Capital Partners.

Katoro said it had now issued notice to Sanderson to draw down the additional £0.4m in full, from which it would provide further funding to the joint venture, through the loan facility.

“The Katoro team has been very pleased with the progress being made at the project, coordinated by the joint venture management committee and led by the recently appointed manager, Graham Briggs,” said executive chairman Louis Coetzee.

“Pleasingly, the project is proceeding more rapidly than anticipated and the drawdown of the Sanderson convertible loan note will enable us to fund the ongoing work programme.

“The board of Katoro notes the strengthening gold price which further bolsters, what we consider to be very robust project economics, as previously announced.”

At 1448 GMT, shares in Katoro Gold were up 9.8% at 2.8p.