Oriole Resources makes progress at Bibemi licence

West Africa-focussed exploration company Oriole Resources updated the market on its strategy on Thursday, reporting that following its third quarter technical meetings, it had identified drill targets at the Bibemi licence in Cameroon.

The AIM-traded firm said an initial 1,500 metres of drilling, over 14 holes, was planned at the Bakassi Zone to test the depth extension of mineralisation identified to date, including previous trenching intersection of up to nine metres at 3.14 grams of gold per tonne.

That, the board said, would form part of an intended larger programme, subject to results and ongoing exploration.

The team was currently mobilising to site to ground-truth the proposed drill locations, and would also undertake mapping and rock-chip sampling in the northeast of the Bakassi Zone in order to identify further drill targets.

Following the receipt of £105,000 in research and development credits from HMRC, and having explored the options available and in light of prevailing market conditions, the company said it had decided that it would concentrate on pursuing its asset realisation plans to help fund further exploration, with discussions underway on a number of opportunities.

In order to continue to maximise the cash available for ongoing exploration work, the board said it had agreed to move to remuneration by share options, in lieu of contractual salary payments, for a limited term.

In that regard, options were preferable to the issue of full-paid shares, as the tax deferral that options provided allowed more cash conservation in the company.

The intention was for up to 70,000,000 options to be issued, at an exercise price of 0.1p per ordinary share, utilising its existing shareholder authority.

Those options would be accrued over a three-month period, beginning from 1 November and ending on 31 January, and would be issued thereafter in one transaction.

The quantity of options issued would be determined on a monthly basis by reference to the 30-day volume-weighted average price at the end of each month, less the exercise price, and would be exercisable any time within 10 years of issue.

Issue of the options in lieu of salary would be subject to approval by the board and by the proposed option recipient.

The board would retain the right to pay the accrued salary in cash instead in certain circumstances, for example should the existing shareholder authority have been exhausted as a result of other business activities, and in the event that a future shareholder authority is not secured.

“We are pleased that both the executive directors have proposed a move to equity-only remuneration,” said executive chairman John McGloin.

“Both David Pelham and I are joining them, affirming the directors confidence in the underlying value of the company's assets.

“We look forward to updates from our West and Central African projects as we enter the new field season, and anticipate strong newsflow from these and the rest of our portfolio over the coming weeks.”

At 1445 GMT, shares in Oriole Resources were down 1.47% at 0.28p.