PRIM Primorus Investments Plc

TIDMPRIM

RNS Number : 4302W

Primorus Investments PLC

11 December 2019

Primorus Investments plc

("Primorus" or the "Company")

Greatland Gold Investment Update

Primorus Investments plc (AIM: PRIM, NEX: PRIM) is pleased to provide an investor update regarding its current holding in Greatland Gold PLC ("Greatland") (AIM: GGP) following a meeting with the Greatland executive team subsequent to the Annual General Meeting attended by Primorus on 3 December 2019.

Highlights

   --    Newcrest drilling expands already very large Havieron footprint 300m to the North. 
   --    Primorus believes Havieron is a Tier 1 Australian Gold/Copper deposit that may host 20Moz+. 
   --    High priority project with 6 rigs to work throughout the Australian summer. 
   --    100% owned Scallywag a potential second Havieron 
   --    Look to add to investment as the Board believes Greatland shares currently undervalued. 

Background

Greatland Gold PLC is an AIM-listed precious and base metals exploration and development company with several active projects in Western Australia and Tasmania. Greatland has a market capitalisation of circa GBP59 million at the time of writing. The Havieron Gold/Copper Project near the Telfer mine in the Paterson Province region of Western Australia is Greatland's most advanced exploration project to date and is subject to an up to US$65 million farm-in agreement ("Farm-in Agreement") with the owner of the Telfer mine, Newcrest Mining Limited ("Newcrest") (ASX: NCM), Australia's largest ASX-listed gold producer.

Primorus began buying shares in Greatland in October 2018 and now holds circa 37 million shares at an average price of 1.71p per share representing approximately 1.03% of the issued capital of Greatland. The Shares of Greatland have traded between 1.49p and 2.5p with a price at the time of writing of 1.64p. The Greatland investment at circa GBP607,000 "mark to market" value is currently Primorus's largest listed investment.

Alastair Clayton, Executive Director of Primorus summarised the meetings:

"We came away from the Greatland Gold AGM and follow-on management meeting with a new sense of excitement as to the potential scale of Havieron. Drilling reported last week from hole HAD023 has demonstrated that Havieron continues at least 300m to the North of the initial discovery area around HAD005. A review of drill plans in the AGM presentation and publicly available Satellite data suggest that even today current drilling is still working to find the limits of the deposit.

With a working geological model now developed at Havieron, we also look with some excitement at GGP's nearby Scallywag Project where analogous geology and new geophysical modelling make the case for similar mineralisation but at levels much closer to the surface than at Havieron. Importantly the Scallywag Project is not subject to the Newcrest Farm-in Agreement and is thus 100% owned by Greatland.

Back in late 2018 we took an investment position based on a handful of exciting drill holes and a belief that Havieron may prove to be a meaningful deposit. Twelve months later, with Newcrest now farming in to Havieron is, in our opinion, shaping up as a truly Tier 1 Australian Gold/Copper discovery that with continued exploration success has the potential to deliver in excess of 20Moz of gold and associated copper.

We are not aware of any other exposure for investors to Australian Tier 1 mining projects on the London Stock Exchange outside of Rio Tinto (RIO.L), Anglo American (AAL.L) and BHP (BHP.L).

From a purely financial perspective incongruously the Greatland Share price is actually below where it was the same time last year. With gold prices still buoyant this goes against what we would expect. The norms of gold exploration suggest that drilling ounces are "banked" with each success and the asset value growth is reflected in the share price.

The Primorus Board believes Greatland is a highly unusual outlier in a market consumed by liquidity concerns and devoid of the traditional small to medium institutional investors that elsewhere in the world invest in maturing but pre-resource gold companies. Regardless, we understand that drilled ounces don't just disappear, and we are at a loss to explain why the overall market is discounting the strong drill results each time they are released by Newcrest.

Given our views on Havieron stated above, we see this as an opportunity and may add to our investment should funds be available to do so. I would like to thank the executive team at Greatland for their hard work in 2019 and believe 2020 will be the year in which we will reap the rewards of patience and belief in our investment in Greatland Gold."

Forward Looking Statements

This announcement contains forward-looking statements relating to expected or anticipated future events and anticipated results that are forward-looking in nature and, as a result, are subject to certain risks and uncertainties, such as general economic, market and business conditions, competition for qualified staff, the regulatory process and actions, technical issues, new legislation, uncertainties resulting from potential delays or changes in plans, uncertainties resulting from working in a new political jurisdiction, uncertainties regarding the results of exploration, uncertainties regarding the timing and granting of prospecting rights, uncertainties regarding the Company's ability to execute and implement future plans, and the occurrence of unexpected events. Actual results achieved may vary from the information provided herein as a result of numerous known and unknown risks and uncertainties and other factors.

For further information, please contact:

 
 Primorus Investments plc:         +44 (0) 20 7440 0640 
 Alastair Clayton 
 
 Nominated Adviser:                +44 (0) 20 7213 0880 
 Cairn Financial Advisers LLP 
 James Caithie / Sandy Jamieson 
 
 Broker:                           +44 (0) 20 3657 0050 
 Turner Pope Investments 
 Andy Thacker / Zoe Alexander 
 

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END

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