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Company Information for Archipelago Resources Plc

Company stock charts - 6 Month chart

Exchange AIM; AR.


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Company Statement

Archipelago Resources Plc (Archipelago) is a UK incorporated company formed in 2002 to acquire, explore, develop and mine gold and other metal deposits in south east Asia. Archipelago was listed on AIM in September 2003 and as a result of a number of capital raisings has 201,149,334 shares in issue. Archipelago’s registered office is in London but the Company is managed from Perth, Western Australia and all project development personnel are located at the Company’s principal project at Toka Tindung in North Sulawesi, Indonesia.

Archipelago Resources Pty Ltd, Meares Soputan Offshore Pty Ltd and Tondano Offshore Pty Ltd are Australian registered companies and Pt Meares Soputan Mining and Pt Tambang Tondano Nusajaya are Indonesian registered companies.


Current Operations

Toka Tindung Gold Project
Location: 35 km north east of Manado, Sulawesi, Indonesia.

Ownership: Archipelago Resources Pty Limited 85% through PT Meares Soputan Mining and 85% through PT Tambang Tondano Nusajaya; the Estate of the late Mr Julius Tahija 15% through PT Meares Soputan Mining and PT Austindo Nusantara Jaya 15% through PT Tambang Tondano Nusajaya.

Mine office: David Morrison (chief operating officer - Toka Tindung Gold Project),
Toka Tindung, Manado, North Sulawesi, Indonesia.
Ph: (62 431) 889 5850/5851. Fax: (62 431) 878 5752.

Resources/Mineral Inventory: Resources at Toka Tindung total 1.7m oz of gold and include a mineral inventory of approximately 1.0m oz gold.

Plant capacity: 1.5 - 1.7 Mtpa.

Acquisition & Development: In February 2002, Archipelago acquired an 85% interest in the Toka Tindung Gold Project from Aurora Gold Ltd, in consideration of the grant of a royalty which ramps up during the first year of production to a 0.375% uncapped gross production royalty on 85% of all gold and silver produced by Archipelago from the project (equivalent to 0.31875% of total production).

In 2004 the Company purchased from Barrick Gold all of the core components of a complete gold processing plant located at El Tambo in northern Chile. The plant was dismantled and transported to the port of Coquimbo prior to shipment to Indonesia, in the 4th qtr of 2006. This acquisition of high quality little used equipment, more than adequate for the production rate proposed at Toka Tindung, greatly assisted the Company with it’s project development plan.

In March 2006 the Company announced that Investec had arranged a syndicated loan facility from four banks involving the provision of US$38.5m (subsequently increased to US$42.5m) by way of debt finance together with a US$4m cost over-run facility.  A lack of support for project development by the Governor of North Sulawesi lead to the expiry of this facility in 2007 but the Company is continuing discussions with a number of interested banks.
On the 6th and 11th March 2008, the Director General of Mineral, Coal and Geothermal on behalf of the Minister of Energy & Mineral Resources, issued Decrees stating that the revised environmental management documents (AMDAL's) are approved in accordance with Regulation No. 27 Year 1999 Articles 19 & 20 and that both Contracts of Work are deemed to be in the Construction Phase thereby granting the operating companies the right to resume construction activities.

The project has a resource of 1.7m ozs gold of which 1.0m will be mineable by way of 5 open pits with processing through a centralised CIL plant. The mineralogy of the Toka Tindung deposits is simple with indicated gold recoveries of approximately 94%. Construction work is already well advanced but currently on hold awaiting debt finance, with production target for late 2010 at a average rate of 160,000 oz of gold equivalent per annum over the first 6 years of production. The project currently has an initial planned life of 8 years which given the excellent exploration potential existing at Toka Tindung, the Company is confident of substantially extending.

Pac Lang Gold Project, Vietnam
Location: 130 kms north of Hanoi, Vietnam

Ownership: Archipelago 65%, VIMICO and Bac Kan 35%

Project: In June 06 the Company announced that following endorsement by the Prime Minister of Vietnam, it had entered into a joint venture heads of agreement with Minerals Corporation (“VIMICO”) an affiliate member of national minerals company Vietnam National Coal – Minerals Industries Group (“VINACOMIN”) and provincial mining company Bac Kan Mineral Joint – Stock Company (“Bac Kan”) to explore for gold and associated minerals at the Pac Lang Gold Project in northern Vietnam. In September 2007 the parties were granted an exploration licence (“EL”) covering the project area.

The Pac Lang mineralised system is located approximately 160kms north north east of Hanoi in the Ngan Son district of Bac Kan province. It comprises a group of gold mineralised quartz veins initially exploited by the French early in the last century which became the site of a major gold rush in 1990-1991 following the discovery of a large quartz vein containing high grade gold mineralisation. Mining activities were subsequently suspended by Vietnamese government authorities apart from some small scale mining by Bac Kan and soil geochemistry by the French government organisation BRGM.

At least 15 gold mineralised mesothermal quartz veins generally less than 2m wide have been identified with a combined outcropping and inferred strike length of 3,300m. The veins are sediment hosted and generally steeply dipping. Many of the veins are clustered and based on previous preliminary sampling (1999) reportedly assay between 0.4 and 49 grams per tonne gold.

Archipelago will be entitled to an interest of 65% in the joint venture and has undertaken to expend US$1.24m within two years from the date of grant of the ELA to maintain its interest entitlement.  Exploration has already commenced and includes a topographic survey to locate all adit portals, stream sediment sampling and the survey by chain and compass and mapping and sampling of over 33kms of underground adits, drives and crosscuts which confirmed the existence of a large gold mineralised system.  Work is focussed on gaining an understanding of the controls to mineralisation and determining the extent of the system and potential for and likely location of any remaining and additional economic mineralisation.

Cam Thuy – Ba Thuoc Gold Project, Vietnam
Location: 105 kms south west of Hanoi, Vietnam

Ownership: Archipelago (majority) VIMICO (minority)

Project: The Company has lodged applications for two exploration licences in the Cam Thuy – Ba Thuoc gold district in northern Vietnam, located on the Ma River fault system, a structure parallel to the major Red River suture, a fault structure which hosts several known areas of gold-copper mineralisation in Vietnam and southern China.

The main targets covered by the licence applications are two large fold structures within clastic and calcareous sediments which are considered prospective for large gold deposits of the Carlin and possibly Telfer style. Outcropping gold mineralisation and substantial unsourced occurrences of alluvial gold occur within the Company’s application areas.

The licence applications have been lodged in the name of Archipelago Resources Plc and VIMICO. In the event that exploration within the licence areas leads to preliminary feasibility work, a joint venture will be formed in which the Company will hold the majority interest.

Corplex Projects, Mindanao, Philippines
Location: North east Mindanao, Philippines.

Ownership: The Company has the right to acquire a 100% interest in Corplex Resources Inc (“Corplex”), a Philippine registered company.

Project: Corplex holds a number of applications for Exploration Permits (EP) and Mineral Production and Sharing Agreements (MPSA) within the northwest portion of the copper and gold rich Surigao peninsular close to the high grade Boyongan copper gold porphyry project owned by Anglo American Inc. and Philex Gold Inc and Red 5’s Siana gold deposit. The tenements include a number of areas of historic gold workings and copper mineralisation and are described more fully in the Company’s Admission Document.


Geographical Spread

Indonesia, Vietnam, Philippines.


Board of Directors and Key Management

Directors
John Colin LoosemoreManaging Director
Michael N ArnettNon-Executive Director
Patrick M. AlexanderNon-Executive Director
Jeremy W. AyreNon-Executive Director
Yoost MengkoPresident Commissioner
Terkelin PurbaDirector
Peter BrownDirector

Management
Jeff DawkinsChief Financial Officer
Dave MorrisonChief Operating Officer
Dean PontinOperations Manager
Chris StephensonCommercial Manager
Terkelin PurbaDirector and External Relations Manager
Peter JohnsonSecurity Manager
Debra WatsonEnvironmental and Health & Safety Manager

Company Address

17 Strome Road
Applecross, Western Australia, Australia 6153

Telephone:+61 8 9364 8301
Facsimile:+ 61 8 9316 3819
Email:cloosemore[at]iinet.net.au
Website:http://www.archipelagoresources.co.uk

Additional Address/Key Contact

Registered office:
22 Melton Street
London NW1 2BW
United Kingdom

Capital

Issued Capital: 391,019,334
Total Shares if Options Exercised: 410,269,334

Annual General Meeting

July

Year End

31 December

Nominated Brokers

Ambrian Partners

Nominated Advisors

Grant Thornton Corporate Finance

Broker/Analyst Reports

01/12/08 - Debt Delays
27/08/08 - SITE VISIT AND FINANCE
09/04/08 - AMDAL Approved

Major Shareholders

Shareholder No of Shares %
Rajawali Group Ltd 146,105,800 37.4%
Baker Steel Funds 97,466,867 24.9%
Asia Image Ltd, Hong Kong 19,290,000 4.9%
Pershing Keen Nominees Limited 15,500,000 4.0%
Colin Loosemore 12,007,600 3.1%
Michael Arnett 11,488,225 2.9%
Millenium Investments 10,988,993 2.8%
JP Morgan Asset Management (UK) Limited 9,900,000 2.5%
Jennison Natural Resources Fund, Inc. (Prudential Financial, Inc.) 8,000,000 2.0%
El Oro & Exploration Company 7,300,000 1.9%
Scottish Value Management (SVI) 5,768,174 1.5%
Duquesne Capital 4,900,000 1.3%

Related News

12/01/10 - Archipelago Gets A Ringing Endorsement From The Banking Community, After A Long Wait
12/08/09 - Archipelago Should Now Be Able To Raise Funds For Toka Tindung, Following A Deal With Indonesian Conglomerate Rajawali
12/11/08 - Archipelago Resources Now Has Several Financiers Interested In Funding Toka Tindung, But It’s Not Done And Dusted Yet
19/03/08 - Chocks Away For Archipelago’s Toka Tindung Gold Project!
30/01/08 - Archipelago Poised For Success On More Than One Front This Year

Most Recent Statement

09/03/10 - Issue of Equity
02/03/10 - Reactivation of Mining Contract
01/03/10 - Expiry of bank mandate
06/01/10 - Posting of Notice to Shareholders regarding General Meeting
05/01/10 - Bank Funding for the Toka Tin
11/11/09 - LETTERS OF INTENT SIGNED FOR CONSTRUCTION

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