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African Mining & Exploration, Altona Energy, Anglo Asian Mining Company news briefs

Contributed by Fox-Davies Capital

African Mining & Exploration has restructured its board of directors with immediate effect following intervention from major shareholders.

In this news:
- The Company's two largest shareholders, Praetorian Resources Limited and Fiske plc together hold 32.5% of the Company
- Stephen Oke, Roger Williams and Douglas Chikohora have resigned as directors
- Professor Mike Johnson (previously a consultant to the Company with a 4.8% holding) has become non-executive Chairman
- Charles Cannon-Brookes (nominee for Praetorian) and Clive Harrison (nominee for Fiske) have been appointed as non-executive directors of the Company
- Each of the new directors will receive a nominal fee of £1 per annum in consideration for them agreeing to act as directors of the Company.

FD Comment:
AME has been progressing well with limited funds and difficult operating conditions in Mali. However, the Company will need additional funds and we expect the principal shareholders will want to protect any further investments in the Company and give them more control over expenditure.

Altona Energy has provided an update regarding acquisition of licenses in the Xinjiang Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China

In this news:
- As announced on 12 December 2012, the timeline for the conversion of EL1 to a Mining Licence was extended to 30 June 2013
- Local government representatives have given verbal approval for mining to proceed
- ML application has now been submitted to the Xinjiang Regional Government for final written approval, which is now expected to be received prior to 30 June 2013.

FD Comment:
We were not expecting this to progress quickly and although there are no guarantees today's announcement is promising. If successful Altona will start mining as soon as possible to take advantage of the better mining conditions during the summer.

Anglo Asian Mining Company has released a gold production update at its flagship Gedabek gold/copper/silver mine in western Azerbaijan for FY'12.

In this news:
- Gold production in FY'12 was 50,215oz and 20,133oz of silver
- Guidance for FY'13 of ~60Koz and ~90koz by FY'14 as ore is trucked from Gosha from FY'14
- However, from FY'13 the Government of Azerbaijan is entitled to 12.75% of the commercial products of each mine as per the production sharing agreement
- New Agitation leaching plant on track to be commissioned in 1H'13 at Gedabek
- Recoveries of oxides and sulphides expected to rise to 85% and 69% respectively
- Average cash operating cost forecast to reduce in 2013 towards ~US$450-500/oz.

FD Comment:
The Company has given no costs for FY'12, but hopes to reduce them to US$450-US$500/oz next year, well within the 1Q of the sector. Looking forward the next big step after the new agitation plant is commissioned and the focus will be in brining Gedabek into development in H2 2013, with a view to first production by 2014 increasing gold production from ~50koz to ~90Koz over the next two years, less the Government's 12.75% share.