Georgian Mining directors write off pay as company raises funds

Georgian Mining directors wrote off their pay as the company raised £380,000 to support its Georgian operations while it waits for an exploration permit.

The company raised the money by issuing 19m new ordinary shares at 2p per placing share. New and existing shareholders took part, including Peter Damouni, a non-executive director, who took up 500,000 shares, taking his stake to 0.79%.

The AIM-listed company also said Damounia and three other directors had agreed to write off their pay for the past 12 months while chief executive Michael Struthers wrote off part of his pay. The total write-off will be about £275,000.

Georgian Mining said it raised the money to sustain its Georgian operations during an extended period for renewing its exploration permit as well as to support efforts to find new assets and for general purposes. The company has been waiting for many months for the Georgian government to approve its exploration permit

Struthers said: "We're pleased to secure further support from our existing shareholders in this challenging period for the company, allowing us to continue to try to unlock the permitting challenge with the government in Georgia, and to further assess the potential for adding new assets into the company on which we can add value in the short term."

The company's shares fell 26% to 2p at 1203 BST.