03 JUNE 2019

Equatorial Mining & Exploration Plc

("EME" or the "Company")

Director Shareholding and Resignation of Director

Director shareholding

The Directors of EME would like to clarify the shareholding of one of its directors, Nicholas Nelson ("NN") and notify the following transactions carried out by NN in the ordinary shares ("Ordinary Shares") of the Company.  

The Company announced on 15 August and 5 November 2018 an issue of new Ordinary Shares to MM Daniel.  These new Ordinary Shares derived from the transfer of EME debts due to NN to MM Daniel.   

The transfer of the debt to MM Daniel was to enable the Company to dispose of any indebtedness.  These debts were subsequently capitalised by the issue of new Ordinary Shares to MM Daniel. At the same time, NN acquired an option over these Ordinary Shares. The option was granted over all of MM Daniel's shareholding of 1,241,326,000 Ordinary Shares. The option has not been disclosed to the market when it was granted, and it has not been exercised.

The Company's website states that NN holds 545,939,024 Ordinary Shares. This figure includes the acquisition of 100,000,000 Ordinary Shares by NN which occurred on 21 March 2019 but was not notified to the market at the time of issue. In addition, NN holds the above-mentioned option over MM Daniel's shareholding, an option over 71,250,000 Ordinary Shares pursuant to an agreement with a third-party shareholder and 293,500,000 Ordinary Shares which are held in the name of WB Nominees Limited (as part of NN's self-invested personal pension). This option over 71,250,000 Ordinary Shares (which are held in the Company's Employee Benefit Trust ("EBT") under the option of a third-party shareholder) has not been disclosed.

In addition, NN holds options over 749,490,000 Ordinary Shares held in the EBT. We note that on 15 August 2018, the Company erroneously announced that NN had options over 891,990,000 Ordinary Shares held by the EBT. The correct figure is 749,490,000 Ordinary Shares.

Accordingly, NN is interested in the following Ordinary Shares:

Ordinary Shares of 0.01p                                              545,939,024       

Ordinary Shares over which NN has an option    2,062,066,000

In total, Nicholas Nelson is interested in 2,608,005,024 ordinary shares and options, which is 23.2% of the total issued share capital.

The Directors take responsibility for this announcement.

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