New Directors, Operations Update, Issue of Options

Chesterfield Resources / EPIC: CHF / Market: LSE / Sector: Mining

5 February 2021

New directors, operational update and issuance of share options

Chesterfield Resources plc is pleased to announce that it has strengthened its board and management team with the appointment of two new directors. The company is also providing an update on its operations.

Ajay Kejriwal has been appointed as an Executive Director and to the position of Chief Financial Officer. Mr Kejriwal has over 30 years' experience in finance and commerce, having worked for Morgan Stanley, Cazenove and Co and Nomura, in London and Hong Kong. He has considerable experience in the junior resource sector and is a specialist in structuring transactions.

Paul Ensor has been appointed as a Non-Executive Director. Mr Ensor similarly has 30 years' experience in institutional equity markets having worked for Baring Securities, CLSA and UBS in Hong Kong and South-East Asia. Since his return to London, Mr Ensor has advised on growth strategies for a number of junior companies, principally in the natural resources sector. He has notable experience in new business development and financing.

Executive Chairman Martin French said "Ajay and Paul are both specialists in growing junior resource companies, and bring considerable transaction and funding expertise to the company to complement our tier one geological technical team. They also bring a wealth of new contacts and avenues to us. As such, we now have a well-balanced company with the range and seniority of skills necessary to build on our success of 2020 to become a high growth player in the copper sector."

Operational update

The company has started receiving assay results from its diamond drilling programme of late 2020, and is expecting to receive all results by the end of this month. There have been considerable delays in the processing of assays due to bottlenecks at the testing laboratories, resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic.

The company is also in advanced planning for its 2021 exploration programme. It is completing an extensive data review and now moving into targeting design based on the encouraging results and indications of the 2020 programme. Percussion drilling and geophysics work is expected to commence within weeks to be followed by diamond drilling in May, in an expanded works programme.

Executive Chairman Martin French said "I am pleased to report that our assays are, finally, being returned. Assay labs in Europe were severely impacted by the Covid-19 lockdown in the spring, which was rapidly followed by an unexpected surge in the mining and exploration activity as the sector took off in the later half of last year. This has caused sample processing to become backed-up throughout the system, with many labs having to divert samples to other labs at a time when air-freight has also been severely restricted. The encouraging results and new data from our 2020 programme will be used to vector an enlarged targeting programme for 2021. We will have more detailed information to follow soon."

New Incentive Options

On the recommendation of the Remuneration Committee, the Board has agreed to issue Ajay Kejriwal with options over a total of 250,000 ordinary shares of 0.1p each in the capital of the Company. These options will vest immediately and will expire five years from the date of issue with an exercise price of 12.5p.

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About Chesterfield Resources 

Chesterfield Resources is a copper-gold exploration company active in Cyprus, where it holds the largest mineral exploration licence area of any operator on the island. Polymetal International, the FTSE100 mining group, recently announced it had taken a 23% strategic investment in Chesterfield via a placing of new shares, and has appointed a director to the board.

Cyprus is regarded as a good quality exploration location. It is a member of the EU, and its legal system is based on English common law. There has been minimal exploration activity on the island in the last 46 years since the invasion by Turkey in 1974 put a halt to what had been a very active mining industry. 

Since that time, exploration technology and geological knowledge has improved significantly. The company is exploring for VMS (Volcanognic Massive Sulphide) deposits, which typically occur in stacks and clusters. Historically only those deposits which were visible from surface have been mined. It is believed that many more deposits remain undiscovered buried near surface, and the company is using modern techniques to locate them. 

While copper is the main exploration target, it is noteworthy that gold was not historically exploited in Cyprus as its price was pegged to just $35 per ounce when the mining industry was active in the 1960s and 1970s (less than 50 times today's price). Gold has been encountered in several locations in the exploration target area and is an important part of the exploration objective. 

The exploration team is led by two senior geologists: Neil O'Brien, formally Head of Exploration, Lundin Mining, Dave Cliff, previously Head of Exploration Europe, Rio Tinto.

The current focus of exploration is in the Troodos West group of licences belonging to the company, with around 30 defined targets in an area measuring 10km by 10km. The objective is to discover several VMS deposits in close proximity to each other to create a mining project with a centralised processing unit. 

The company is receiving results from its late season 2020 drilling campaign. These will be used for targeting an enlarged 2021 geophysics, percussion and diamond drilling exploration campaign which is currently under planning. The company is also appraising new business opportunities within the sector.

Chesterfield Resources is committed to world-class environmental standards in all of its operations to mine copper, which is essential to developing clean technology projects worldwide. The company hopes to develop industry and opportunities for the benefit of the Republic of Cyprus. 

Market Abuse Regulation (MAR) Disclosure

Certain information contained in this announcement would have been deemed inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of Regulation (EU) No 596/2014 until the release of this announcement.

Notification And Public Disclosure Of Transactions By Persons Discharging Managerial Responsibilities And Persons Closely Associated With Them 

**ENDS**

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