UK Edition
Mod Resources to list in London with Botswana copper project
A mining company is to announce a listing on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) tomorrow as it looks to put a copper project in Botswana into production.
Mod Resources, which is currently traded on the Australian Stock Exchange, hopes to complete its entry onto the main market of the LSE by next week.
The exploration company will not be raising capital in the listing, which could give it market value of around £50m.
Julian Hanna, managing director, said the move was intended to make the London market “become aware of the amazing asset we have in Botswana”.
Mod is looking to complete a feasibility study on its T3 project in Botswana before the end of March. It believes the deposit, in the middle of the Kalahari copper belt close to neighbouring Namibia, could produce up to three million tonnes of copper ore a year, equating to approximately 30,000 tonnes of concentrate.
The open-pit mine could cost around $200m (£156m) to build and be in production by 2020. Mod will look at a mixture of debt finance and off-take agreements to fund the mine.
In addition to the development of T3, Mr Hanna said Mod had “broader ambitions” to explore for copper in its 11,500sq km licence area, which it holds in a 70-30 partnership with Aim-listed Metal Tiger.
“Botswana is a wonderful and very stable jurisdiction,” he said. “It’s done very well out of diamonds and the president has made clear it wants to diversify into other commodities. We are one of largest licence holders there.
“We’ve called T3 ‘Motheo’, which means ‘beginning’ in Botswana, as we think it’s just the beginning of opening up the Kalahari copper belt.”
Botswana gained its independence from the UK in 1966 and was boosted by the discovery of diamonds a year later. De Beers remains the biggest foreign company operating in the landlocked southern African country, which is also thought to be rich in coal.