10 May 2023

Golden Metal Resources plc ('Golden Metal' or the 'Company')

First Day of Dealings

Golden Metal Resources plc, a mineral exploration company focused on tungsten, gold, copper, silver and zinc within Nevada, USA, is pleased to announce that, at 08:00 today, its ordinary shares will commence trading on AIM under the ticker GMET. As part of the process of admission to trading on AIM ("Admission"), the Company has raised gross proceeds of £1.98m through the issue of 23,317,643 new ordinary shares of £0.01 each at a placing price of 8.5 pence per share, equating to a market capitalisation of £7.16 million on Admission. 

Overview

The key strengths and attributes of Golden Metal can be summarised as follows:

Location:

The state of Nevada is a well-regarded, mining investment friendly jurisdiction. It was ranked third in the Fraser Institute's global mining investment attractiveness index survey in 2021 and has a long history of mining and a strong mining and ancillary business support network. Nevada is one of the principal producers of precious metals in the world, with 25 precious metal mines currently in production, accounting for approximately 70 per cent. of the United States total gold production in 2020. In 2018 Nevada accounted for 83 per cent. of the US's total gold production.

According to the Nevada Mining Association (2022), as of November 2021, 11,000 people were employed by the metal mining sector within the state, with a Nevada Gross Domestic Product contribution of US$3.2 billion in 2020.

Projects with Critical and High-Demand Minerals:

The Company's 100% owned Pilot Mountain Project ("Pilot Mountain") hosts a tungsten-copper-silver-zinc Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) which includes 12.53Mt at 0.27% W0₃ (tungsten tri-oxide) with significant copper-silver-zinc credits. Tungsten is an in-demand and critical metal as outlined below:

·         Tungsten is included in the British Geological Survey's UK Critical Minerals list (2022), the US Geological Survey's (USGS) Critical Minerals list (2022) and the European Commission's Critical Raw Materials list (2020).

·         The global demand for tungsten is forecast to rise annually (3-7 per cent. per annum according to the British Geological Survey) and is predicted to outstrip available supply, which is likely to place continued upward pressure on prices in the near-term.

Management Team:

A proven management team with:

·         a broad spectrum of knowledge and capabilities;

·         substantial technical and listed company experience; and

·         extensive North American operating experience with connections to various in-country consulting teams.

Diverse Project Base:

The Golden Metal portfolio consists of four Nevada based projects (collectively the "Nevada Projects") comprising the Pilot Mountain Project and three exploration stage projects: the Golconda Summit Project (gold), the Garfield Project (copper-gold-silver) and the Stonewall Project (gold-silver).

The Nevada Projects are all well located within major metallogenic belts containing active, globally important precious- and base-metal mining operations. All the assets have favourable geology which is prospective for skarn, carlin, epithermal and porphyry deposit types.  The portfolio is focussed on tungsten, gold, silver and base metal mineralisation.

In particular, the Pilot Mountain Project offers significant exploration upside potential as well as the opportunity for Golden Metal to de-risk the Project on a number of fronts. These include building on the existing MRE, furthering and updating technical studies relating to the potential development of the known resources, further permitting, making relevant grant applications, including to the DOD Defence Production Act (DPA) Title III grant office as well as commodity marketing and further metallurgical studies.

In total, the Nevada Projects cover a combined area of approximately 22.83 km². 

Oliver Friesen, CEO of Golden Metal, commented: 

" Golden Metal's admission to AIM comes at a time when it is clear that the world needs more critical, precious-and base-metals. This represents an exciting opportunity for a company such as ours with ownership of four diverse exploration and development assets located wholly within one of the top mining jurisdictions in the world. I believe that our Pilot Mountain Project, with its tungsten MRE, offers the greatest potential for exploitation, given that the US currently has no domestic primary production of the metal and is looking to reduce its heavy reliance on imports of critical metals from China. We are looking forward to actively pushing forward various exploration and corporate developments both within the US and UK and will provide further updates to the market on these various plans in due course.

I would like to thank all of the Golden Metal team and pre-IPO investors for their patience as we methodically worked through the various exploration and corporate developments which have led the Company to the exciting position it is in now. "

Background

Golden Metal is a mineral exploration company focused on tungsten, gold, copper, silver and zinc within Nevada, USA. It was established for the purpose of holding all of the Nevada mining assets of Power Metal Resources plc ("Power Metal") and progressing the exploration and development of those assets. The Company holds four mining assets comprising the 100% owned Pilot Mountain, Garfield and Stonewall Projects together with an earn in option over the Golconda Summit Project. Each Project consists of unpatented lode mining claims located entirely on land managed by the United States Bureau of Land Management.

The Directors believe that the combination of a suite of high-quality, diversified Nevada based mining assets within a single, US-focused AIM-quoted vehicle creates a compelling investment opportunity. It is their opinion that the Nevada Projects hold several underexplored, highly prospective tungsten, gold, copper, silver and zinc exploration targets. The Directors consider that the Pilot Mountain Project has the potential to increase its existing tungsten focused MRE and to expand on multiple tungsten, copper, silver and zinc-rich zones identified by minimal historical drilling. In addition, the Directors consider that the Golconda Summit Project has the potential for a major gold discovery to follow the identification of significant surface gold mineralisation during a 1989 trenching programme. Accordingly, the Company's exploration focus will be on these two projects but the Directors also believe there is potential value to be realised at the Garfield and Stonewall Projects.

On 8 April 2022, the Company raised £750,000 through a pre-IPO Financing at a price of 6.67 pence per Ordinary Share, following which Power Metal held 83.13 per cent. of the existing ordinary shares. On Admission, Power Metal will hold 62.1 per cent. of the Company's enlarged share capital.

Placing, Subscription, Acquisition and Use of Proceeds

The Company has raised gross proceeds of £1,982,000 through a placing and subscription through the issue of 12,449,208 Placing Shares and 10,868,435 Subscription Shares at a price of 8.5 pence per share.

The net proceeds from the Placing and Subscription will be used by the Company to:

·         provide funding for the Company to further explore and develop the Nevada Projects; and

·         provide the Company with ongoing working capital to support its business operations.

Warrants

Together with every two Placing Shares and every two Subscription Shares, each Placee and Subscriber will also be granted one warrant entitling the holder to subscribe for one further new Ordinary Share at 10.75 pence per Ordinary Share, for a period of 12 months from Admission, and one warrant entitling the holder to subscribe for one further new Ordinary Share at 17 pence per Ordinary Share, for a period of 24 months from Admission. Further details of the warrants are set out in Part VI of the Company's AIM admission document.

This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of EU Regulation 596/2014 (which forms part of domestic UK law pursuant to the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018).  

Forward Looking Statements

This announcement contains forward-looking statements relating to expected or anticipated future events and anticipated results that are forward-looking in nature and, as a result, are subject to certain risks and uncertainties, such as general economic, market and business conditions, competition for qualified staff, the regulatory process and actions, technical issues, new legislation, uncertainties resulting from potential delays or changes in plans, uncertainties resulting from working in a new political jurisdiction, uncertainties regarding the results of exploration, uncertainties regarding the timing and granting of prospecting rights, uncertainties regarding the timing and granting of regulatory and other third party consents and approvals, uncertainties regarding the Company's or any third party's ability to execute and implement future plans, and the occurrence of unexpected events. 

Actual results achieved may vary from the information provided herein as a result of numerous known and unknown risks and uncertainties and other factors.

For further information visit www.goldenmetalresources.com or contact the following:

The Projects:

Pilot Mountain Project

The Pilot Mountain project is an advanced exploration and mineral resource definition stage project located in Mineral County in western Nevada. The project covers an area of 14.80 km² (3,656.1 acres) and is located 200km southeast of Reno and 18km east of Mina, Nevada. It is well situated for the supply of power, water and skilled labour and proximity to transport infrastructure in Mineral County and is centred around four existing mineral deposits: Garnet; Good Hope; Gunmetal and Desert Scheelite, all of which possess significant skarn-style tungsten-copper-silver-zinc mineralisation. The Pilot Mountain project consists of 176 active lode mining claims and 4 filed mill site claims. The four mill site claims filed at the former Dunham mill site have secure access to groundwater supply sufficient for the proposed project.

Golconda Summit Project

Golden Metal is the operator of the Golconda Summit project, which is held under an earn-in right to acquire up to 100 per cent. of the project from the mineral claim owner pursuant to an option agreement. The Golconda Summit project is an exploration stage gold and silver project located in Humboldt County and situated at the confluence of the Getchell and Battle Mountain - Eureka metallogenic trends, and consists of 44 lode mining claims, covering a total area of approximately 3.22 km² (795.4 acres) located approximately 27km east of Winnemucca.

Garfield Project

The Garfield project is an early exploration stage copper, gold and silver property consisting of 39 lode mining claims covering 3.23 km² (797.9 acres) located in Mineral County, Nevada, approximately 14km due east of the town of Hawthorne and 120km due west-northwest of Tonopah.

Stonewall Project

The Stonewall project is an exploration stage gold-silver property prospective for epithermal gold-silver mineralisation. The property consists of 19 lode mining claims covering 1.59 km² (392.5 acres) located on the northern flank of Stonewall Mountain, on the western edge of the Nellis Airforce Range Restricted Access Area, in Nye County, Nevada, approximately 24km south-east of the historic gold mining town of Goldfield and 60km due south of Tonopah.