Primorus sells Gold Mines of Wales holding to Alba

Primorus Investments announced on Monday that it has, by way of a sale and purchase agreement and loan assignment, sold its entire holding of 49% of the issued share capital in Gold Mines of Wales to Alba Mineral Resources, for a total consideration of 83,333,333 shares in Alba.

The AIM-traded firm said that, at Alba's closing share price on 1 December of 0.38p, those shares had a market value of approximately £0.32m and would represent 3.6% of the enlarged issued capital in Alba.

It said the shares were subject to a six-month orderly market agreement, and were due to be issued immediately upon completion of this agreement.

“We are pleased to have found a natural home for our minority stake in GMOW and in doing so gained a significant stake in Alba,” said Primorus executive director Alastair Clayton.

“We believe the project fits well with Alba's portfolio and expertise in directly managing natural resources projects and represents the best execution of our investment mandate for shareholders.”

Clayton added that Primorus now had a “more readily valued” investment in Alba, and through that was retaining some exposure to GMOW over time as well as a portfolio of oil and gas and mining projects.

“Furthermore we, through our shareholding in Alba, gain more exposure to the Weald Basin via Alba's 18.1% holding in HHDL and significantly in Alba's 100% owned Thule Black Sands Project in Greenland where Alba recently reported 65 samples collected from the Thule 1 target showing a weighted average Total Heavy Mineral (THM) content of a high-grade of 46.7%.”

Alba executive chairman George Frangeskides said his company was “delighted” to have secured a significant stake in the Clogau Gold Project.

He said the project fit squarely within Alba's strategy to identify projects which include former working mines, which had both near-mine expansion potential and “significant” exploration upside in the wider project area.

“The opportunity presented by this project is pretty unique - high grade gold in the heart of the United Kingdom, the fact that Welsh gold attracts a significant premium over spot rates, the historic connections of Welsh gold with the heritage of the United Kingdom, the potential for finding more gold in the vastly under-explored exploration ground - all these are factors which together make a strong case for investment,” Frangeskides explained.

“The Clogau Gold Mine is also complementary to our existing UK onshore assets, being our oil and gas interests at Horse Hill and Brockham in the Weald Basin in Surrey.

“In these times of great change for the United Kingdom, Alba is championing our domestic natural resources industry and channelling investment back into UK PLC.”