The information contained within this announcement is deemed to constitute inside information as stipulated under the Market Abuse Regulation ("MAR") (EU) No. 596/2014, as incorporated into UK law by the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018. Upon the publication of this announcement, this inside information is now considered to be in the public domain.

 

29 May 2024

Beowulf Mining plc

("Beowulf" or the "Company")

Unaudited Financial Results for the Period Ended 31 March 2024

Beowulf Mining (AIM: BEM; Spotlight: BEO), the mineral exploration and development company, announces its unaudited financial results for the three months ended 31 March 2024 (the "Period").

 

Activities in the Period  

 

Corporate

 

·      During the Period, the Company initiated a capital raise to fund the continued development of the Company's projects, in particular the Kallak Iron Ore Project ("Kallak") in Sweden and the Graphite Anode Materials Plant ("GAMP") in Finland.

·      The capital raise, which was concluded on 28 March 2024, raised a total of SEK 56.3 million (approximately £4.3 million) by way of a rights issue of Swedish Depository Receipts in Sweden, and a Primary Bid retail offer and a placing to certain UK investors including members of the Board and executive management in the UK.

·      In order to enact the capital raise, a General Meeting was held to provide the Board of Directors with the requisite authorisation and flexibility to increase the Company's share capital. In addition, given the Company's share price was near the nominal value of the Ordinary Shares, the existing Ordinary Shares of 1p each were subdivided into a new Ordinary Share of 0.1p and a deferred A share of 0.9p.

 

Sweden

 

·      During the Period, the Company announced the appointment of Dmytro Siergieiev as Project Director for Kallak. Dmytro, who commenced in the position on 1 May 2024, had previously been working as team leader for Sweco's mine environment unit, overseeing a broad range of assignments focused on mine development, operation and permitting.

·      Work continued in preparation for both the Pre-Feasibility Study ("PFS") and Environmental Impact Assessment ("EIA") for Kallak.

·      Beowulf, through its wholly-owned Swedish subsidiary Jokkmokk Iron Mines AB ("Jokkmokk Iron"), was awarded the exploration permit Parkijaure nr 8. The permit is approximately 2,440 hectares in size and is situated south of the Kallak project and immediately to the south and east of the Company's existing Parkijaure nr 6 exploration permit and is prospective for iron ore mineralisation similar to the deposits defined at Kallak. Processing and interpretation of historic ground magnetic data has identified a number of extensive and strongly magnetic anomalies up to four kilometres in strike length that are believed to host iron ore mineralisation.

 

·      Following geological mapping and boulder sampling of its Parkijaure nr 7 licence, completed by Jokkmokk Iron during 2023, the Company announced a rock chip sample from a boulder assayed 14.6% copper ("Cu"), 0.56% zinc ("Zn"), 119 grammes per tonne ("g/t") silver ("Ag") and 0.35g/t gold ("Au"). Further, through the compilation and reprocessing of historic geological, geophysical, soil geochemical and drilling data within the licence area, 16 high priority targets were identified. Historic drilling intersected 6.2 metres ("m") of 1.53% Cu (including 3.6m of 2.45% Cu) and 2.6m at 0.96% Cu in diamond drillhole 74002, and 110m of 0.42% Cu, 0.54 g/t Au and 0.16% Zn (including a higher-grade zone of 37.6m at 0.63% Cu, 0.87 g/t Au and 0.21% Zn) in diamond drillhole MAJ04001.

·      On 18 January 2024, the Government made a formal and comprehensive statement in relation to the ongoing Supreme Administrative Court appeal process relating to the Kallak Iron Ore Project, endorsing the original decision to award the Exploitation Concession and further emphasising its support for the project, stating that the Kallak Project is of national interest.

 

Finland

 

·      On 17 January 2024, Beowulf, through its wholly-owned Finnish subsidiary Grafintec Oy ("Grafintec"), announced an updated strategy to fast-track the full GAMP process, consisting of Spheronisation, Purification and Coating to produce Coated Spherical Graphite ("CSPG") for sale to anode manufacturers. The updated strategy captures more of the anode material production value chain and provides greater supply-chain security following the export controls imposed by China on graphite materials in December 2023.

·      An enhanced PFS on the full GAMP process is expected to be concluded during 2024, building on the PFS of the Coating stage of the process previously announced in July 2023 that demonstrated robust economics with a post-tax Net Present Value of US$242 million (using an 8% discount rate) and a post-tax Internal Rate of Return of 39%.

·      The enhanced PFS will be followed by a Definitive Feasibility Study ("DFS") in 2025, with first production still planned from 2027. While the changes in Grafintec's development strategy will extend the time for the ongoing EIA process and PFS to include the Spheronisation and Purification process stages, the overall timeline for the GAMP remains on track for first production in 2027.

·      On 14 February 2024, the municipality of Korsholm approved a renewal of the advance site reservation for Plot 1, Block 3017 in the GigaVaasa area by a further six months. The extended advance site reservation is valid until 31 July 2024, with option to extend further.

 

Kosovo

 

·      The Company announced the consolidation of 100 per cent ownership of Vardar Minerals Limited ("Vardar") during the Period, through the issue of 52,326,761 Beowulf shares (which remain subject to a 12-month lock-in agreement) and provides Beowulf with full ownership and optionality and, through bringing management and administrative functions in-house, reduces the overall running cost to Beowulf. The transaction completed after market close on 8 April 2024 and was announced the following day.

·      In connection with the consolidation, Ismet Krasniqi was appointed to the Board of Vardar.

·      Vardar submitted applications, and received confirmation of receipt on 22 February 2024, for new licences covering the original Mitrovica, Viti East and Viti North licence areas, all of which expired on 27 January 2024 in accordance with their terms. Exploration licence applications are reviewed by the Independent Commission for Mines and Minerals ("ICMM") in Kosovo and ultimately granted by the Board of ICMM. The Government disbanded the Board of ICMM in October 2023, thus the licence applications remain pending until the new Board is appointed. With the licence applications formally lodged with ICMM, no other party may apply for licences over the same area. The Company is confident that the licences will be granted by ICMM in due course and will update the market accordingly. As these applications are for new licences, they will be valid for an initial three-year period from the date of granting after which they may be extended twice, for two-year periods with a reduction in the land holding of 50 per cent on each occasion.

·      Vardar received encouraging preliminary assay results from sampling programmes on the Shala East licence with rock chip samples assaying up to 3.84 grammes per tonne ("g/t") gold ("Au"), 117 g/t silver ("Ag"), 5.5% zinc ("Zn") and 5.4% lead ("Pb").

·      Furthermore, sampling of water springs on the Viti North licences has returned highly anomalous lithium and boron results of 1,260 and 10,500 microgrammes per litre respectively from a single sample. Further sampling and exploration are planned.

 

Post Period

 

·      Following the end of the Period on 3 April, the results of the capital raise were announced with a total of SEK 56.3 million (approximately £4.3m) being raised before costs.

·      In accordance with the underwriting agreements connected to the Rights Issue, the underwriters had the option to receive the underwriter fee in the form of cash or in the form of SDRs, or a combination thereof. One of the underwriters, Formue Nord Markedsneutral A/S opted to receive its underwriter fee as SDRs and as a result subscribed for 29,166,667 new SDRs.

·      Further, although the consolidation of Vardar described above, was agreed and announced prior to the end of the Period, it did not complete until after market close on 8 April 2024.

 

Financial

·      The underlying administration expenses of £397,823 are lower than the previous period of £593,795. This decrease is due to share-based payment expenses of £10,816 (Q1 2023: £80,723), professional fees of £170,035 (Q1 2023: £175,973), salary costs of £102,914 (Q1 2023: £123,272), travel costs of £3,119 (Q1 2023: £16,637), consultancy fees of £11,012 (Q1 2023: £33,174), PR fees of £11,272 (Q1 2023: 18,822), downstream processing expense of £25,232 (Q1 2023: £32,605), and a foreign currency loss on bank revaluations of £15,616 (Q1 2023: £58,817).

·      The consolidated loss before tax decreased in the Period to £429,825 (Q1 2023: £764,057). This decrease is primarily due to expenses outlined in the preceding point combined with a reduction in finance costs in relation to the bridging loan of £32,400 (Q1 2023: £195,304).

·      Consolidated basic and diluted loss per share for the quarter ended 31 March 2024 was 0.04 pence (Q1 2023: loss of 0.09 pence).

·      £851,803 in cash was held at 31 March 2024 (31 March 2023: £4,337,137). This was prior to the release of the net funds raised as part of the Capital Raise of £3m.

·      Exploration assets increased to £14,625,600 at 31 March 2024 compared to £13,517,973 at 31 March 2023.

·      The cumulative translation losses held in equity increased by £496,012 in the quarter ended 31 March 2024 to £1,953,884 (31 December 2023: loss of £1,457,872). Much of the Company's exploration costs are in Swedish Krona which has weakened against the pound since 31 December 2023.

·      At 31 March 2024, there were 921,064,814 Swedish Depository Receipts representing 79.60% per cent of the issued share capital of the Company. The remaining issued share capital of the Company is held in the UK. This was prior to the issue of shares and SDRs resulting from the Capital Raise.

 

 

Ed Bowie, Chief Executive Officer ("CEO") of Beowulf, commented:

 

"Completing the capital raise was a key step for the Company during the Period, ensuring it has the funding required to maintain the development of its projects. I would like to extend my thanks to all those who supported the raise. I and the Beowulf team remain focused on advancing our projects, demonstrating their significant underlying value and growing the value of the business.

 

"I am delighted that Dmytro has joined the team and already bringing his significant experience and enthusiasm to help advance the Kallak project. We have a number of key work-streams ongoing and planned for the summer period that will feed into the PFS and EIA.

 

"Grafintec, having updated its strategy to include the full GAMP process from outset is also progressing well under Rasmus's stewardship. The demand for secure supply chains of strategic minerals has never been greater and we plan to play a key role within the European market.

 

"Consolidating 100% of Vardar is also a key step for the Company. We continue to generate exciting results through low-cost exploration. It is a pleasure to have Ismet joining the Vardar Board as we seek to grow the business and unlock its potential and value.

 

"We look forward to updating the market on progress across the three business units over the coming months."

 

 

 

Enquiries:

 

Beowulf Mining plc
Ed Bowie, Chief Executive Officer	ed.bowie@beowulfmining.com
SP Angel
(Nominated Adviser & Joint Broker)
Ewan Leggat / Stuart Gledhill / Adam Cowl	Tel: +44 (0) 20 3470 0470
Alternative Resource Capital
(Joint Broker)
Alex Wood	Tel: +44 (0) 20 7186 9004
BlytheRay
Tim Blythe / Megan Ray	Tel: +44 (0) 20 7138 3204

 

Cautionary Statement

 

Statements and assumptions made in this document with respect to the Company's current plans, estimates, strategies and beliefs, and other statements that are not historical facts, are forward-looking statements about the future performance of Beowulf. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, those using words such as "may", "might", "seeks", "expects", "anticipates", "estimates", "believes", "projects", "plans", strategy", "forecast" and similar expressions. These statements reflect management's expectations and assumptions in light of currently available information. They are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, including, but not limited to , (i) changes in the economic, regulatory and political environments in the countries where Beowulf operates; (ii) changes relating to the geological information available in respect of the various projects undertaken; (iii) Beowulf's continued ability to secure enough financing to carry on its operations as a going concern; (iv) the success of its potential joint ventures and alliances, if any; (v) metal prices, particularly as regards iron ore. In the light of the many risks and uncertainties surrounding any mineral project at an early stage of its development, the actual results could differ materially from those presented and forecast in this document. Beowulf assumes no unconditional obligation to immediately update any such statements and/or forecast.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

About Beowulf Mining plc

 

Beowulf Mining plc ("Beowulf" or the "Company") is an exploration and development company, listed on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange and the Spotlight Exchange in Sweden. The Company listed in Sweden in 2008 and, on 17 April 2024, was 81.07 per cent owned by Swedish shareholders. Beowulf's purpose is to be a responsible and innovative company that creates value for our shareholders, wider society and the environment, through sustainably producing critical raw materials, which includes iron ore, graphite and base metals, needed for the transition to a green economy. The Company has an attractive portfolio of assets, including commodities such as iron ore, graphite, gold and base metals, with activities in exploration, the development of mines and downstream production in Sweden, Finland and Kosovo.

 

The Company's most advanced project is the Kallak iron ore asset in northern Sweden from which test-work has produced a 'market leading' magnetite concentrate of 71.5 per cent iron content.  In the Kallak area, the Mineral Resources of the deposits have been classified according to the PERC Standards 2017, as was reported by the Company via RNS on 25 May 2021, based on a revised resource estimation by Baker Geological Services. The total Measured and Indicated resource reports at 132 million tonnes ("Mt") grading 28.3 per cent iron ("Fe"), with an Inferred Mineral Resource of 39 Mt grading 27.1 per cent Fe.

 

In Finland, Grafintec, a wholly-owned subsidiary, is developing the Graphite Anode Material Plant to supply anode material to the lithium-ion battery industry. The Company has a site reserved at the GigaVaasa industrial hub in western Finland and is completing a Pre-Feasibility Study on the downstream processing plant. While the intention is to initially import graphite concentrate from a third-party mine, Grafintec has a portfolio of graphite projects in Finland including one of Europe's largest flake graphite resources in the Aitolampi project in eastern Finland. Grafintec is working towards creating a sustainable value chain in Finland from high quality natural flake graphite resources to anode material production, leveraging renewable power, targeting net zero CO₂ emissions across the supply chain.

 

In Kosovo, the Company, through its wholly-owned subsidiary Vardar Minerals, is focused on exploration in the Tethyan Belt, a major orogenic metallogenic province for base and precious metals.  Vardar is delivering exciting results across its portfolio of licences and has several exploration targets, including lead, zinc, copper, gold and lithium.

 

Kallak is the foundational asset of the Company, and, with Grafintec and Vardar, each business area displays strong prospects and, presents opportunities to grow, with near-term and longer-term value-inflection points.

Beowulf wants to be recognised for living its values of Respect, Partnership and Responsibility. The Company's ESG Policy is available on the website following the link below:

https://beowulfmining.com/about-us/esg-policy/       

 

 

BEOWULF MINING PLC

CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED INCOME STATEMENT

 

FOR THE THREE MONTHS TO 31 MARCH 2024

	Notes	(Unaudited) 3 months ended 31 March  2024   £	(Unaudited) 3 months ended 31 March 2023   £	(Audited)  12 months ended 31 December 2023   £
Continuing operations
Administrative expenses		(397,823)	(593,735)	(2,501,263)
Impairment of exploration assets		-	-	(350,158)
Operating loss		(397,823)	(593,735)	(2,851,421)
Finance costs	3	(32,904)	(195,536)	(197,724)
Finance income		902	458	7,923
Grant income		-	24,756	96,750
Recovery of impairment of listed investment		-	-	6,563
Loss before and after taxation		(429,825)	(764,057)	(2,937,909)
Loss attributable to:
Owners of the parent		(412,810)	(743,435)	(2,863,959)
Non-controlling interests		(17,015)	(20,622)	(73,950)
		(429,825)	(764,057)	(2,937,909)
Loss per share attributable to the owners of the parent:
Basic and diluted (pence)	4	(0.04)	(0.09)	(0.26)