Stake in Minmet-Amendment
Gold Oil PLC
12 February 2007
This announcement replaces the announcement 'Stake in Minmet' made at 08.30 on
12 February 2007, announcement number 0764R. In the Editor's Notes, turnover for
Minmet was given as US$22,195,000. The correct figure is US$10,216,000. All
other text remains the same.
FOR RELEASE ON MONDAY 12TH FEBRUARY 2007
GOLD OIL PLC
('Gold' or 'the Company')
Gold Acquires a 24.67% Stake in Irish Resource Company Minmet Plc
The board of directors of Gold Oil Plc is pleased to announce that agreement in
principle (the 'Agreement) has been reached between Gold's wholly owned
subsidiary, Gold Oil Caribbean Ltd ('Gold Caribbean') and Minmet Plc's wholly
owned subsidiary, Minmet (Isle of Man) Limited. Minmet Plc is an Irish resource
company, IEX and AIM listed, Minmet plc ('Minmet').
Gold has identified several interesting oil and gas exploration and production
opportunities in countries outside of Gold's core areas of Peru and Colombia.
Gold has been looking at different ways of realizing value from these
opportunities. In some of the non-core areas Irish companies have a good track
record of closing deals compared to British ones and as an Irish registered
company with its own financial resources and management, Minmet Plc should be in
a unique position to exploit these opportunities. These areas, as well as
opportunities outside of Central and South America that are presented to Gold,
will be pursued by Minmet.
The Agreement will enhance Gold's ability to acquire further non-core interests
in the region and provide the finance to rapidly exploit those interests.
Under the Agreement Gold will acquire 24.67 percent of Minmet through a share
placing and a share exchange. Gold has also entered into a technical services
agreement with Minmet to provide oil & gas technical expertise and has agreed to
appoint two directors to the Minmet board.
Under the Agreement:
• Minmet will purchase from Gold Caribbean proprietary data for oil and
gas opportunities in several non-core Central and South American countries for
£1. 35 million that Gold will use to subscribe for 10 million new ordinary
shares of €0.01 each in Minmet at a price of Stg13.5p per share.
• Gold has agreed to subscribe for a total of 12.75 million new
ordinary shares of €0.01 each in Minmet issued at Stg13.5p per share in exchange
for a subscription by Minmet in Gold for 22.95 million new ordinary shares at a
price of Stg7.5p per share.
• Minmet will appoint two Gold Oil directors, Mike Burchell and Gary
Moore, as non-executive directors of Minmet.
• Gold will perform certain technical management functions for Minmet
and Minmet will perform certain administrative and corporate functions for Gold
through service contracts
Following these transactions Gold will hold a 24.67 percentage interest of the
enlarged issued share capital of Minmet and Minmet will hold a 4.99 percentage
of the enlarged issued share capital of Gold. Minmet and Gold have agreed to a
mutual lock in of one year.
Gary Moore, Gold's Chief Executive, commented: 'We have been looking for a
suitable partner to develop these non-core opportunities for some time.
Generally we would look to acquire exploration acreage and then, after a period
of negotiation and evaluation, seek a partner who will take a significant
portion of the risk and cost. It may not always be possible to get the partner
of choice as a result of unique regional issues. Minmet is an Irish company with
a significant portfolio of residual investments and increasing cash balances.
The combination with Gold provides the opportunity to capitalise on a number of
opportunities. With this tie-up with Minmet we now have a partner with cash and
in which Gold has a significant involvement and we can avoid the dilution of a
farm-out to another company'.
For further information, please contact:
Gary Moore Managing Director; Tel: 01737833597
Email: gmoore@goldoilplc.com
Mike Burchell Chairman; Tel: 01372361772
Email: mikeburchell@hotmail.com
Roland Cornish Beaumont Cornish Limited; Tel: 020 7628 3396
Notes to Editor:
Minmet plc is an Irish registered and headquartered natural resource company
with oil and gas and mineral interests. The Company is listed on AIM (MNT.L) and
IEX (MJX1) and its shares trade OTC in Oslo (MINT).
The Company is the owner of the Bjorkdal gold mine in Northern Sweden producing
approximately 600 kgs of gold per annum. The mine is under a sale option to
Gold-Ore Resources Ltd. (GOZ - TSXV) of Canada, with the option to be determined
by 31 December 2007 at the latest.
Minmet owns strategic shareholdings in the following publicly quoted companies
involved in gold and base metal mineral exploration:
• Ashburton Minerals Ltd (ASX)
• GoldQuest Mining Corp. (GQC-TSXV)
• Horizonte Minerals plc (HML - AIM)
• Northland Resources Inc. (NAU - TSXV & NAUR - Oslo)
In addition Minmet has exploration and technical interests in:
• Oil and Gas interests in Texas and New Mexico USA.
• A lead / zinc discovery at Sungem, Minas Gerais, Brazil
• Diamond exploration at Coromandel, Minas Gerais, Brazil
• Gold bioleaching process
For the year to 31 December 2005, Minmet had a loss of US$2,293,000 on turnover
of US$10,216,000 and net asset value of US$22,195,000.
The cash position of Minmet as of 9 February 2007, including cash held in third
party stockbroker accounts totals US$5.8 million.
Web - www.minmet.ie
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange