Bluebird Merchant Ventures Ltd, a gold company primarily focused on bringing historic mines back into production, announces its Final Results for the year ended 31 December 2022.
The Company’s Annual Report and Financial Statements for the year ended 31 December 2022 will be available on its website https://bluebirdmv.com or downloadable on the following link:
http://www.rns-pdf.londonstockexchange.com/rns/4646X_1-2023-4-26.pdf
CHAIRMAN’S STATEMENT
Since my last report we have continued to make headway in all three of our projects, the Kochang Gold and Silver Mine (“Kochang”) and Gubong Gold Mine (“Gubong”) in South Korea, and the Batangas Gold Project (“Batangas”) in the Philippines.
In South Korea, the lifting of pandemic restrictions was most welcome and with normality returning, our main aim during the period was to get back in country and progress our plans of bringing the high grade Kochang and Gubong historic mines back into production. We immediately re-engaged with all stakeholders and then focused largely on securing the outstanding permits, licences, and other legal requirements to meet on-going local regulations for the two projects. Extraction permits at both mines have been secured and applications made for Mountain Temporary Use Permits (“MTUPs”) to allow commencement of surface work at the two historic mines. The value of the two projects was highlighted in the publication of a Scoping Study which included a post-tax NPV of USD 181 million, free cash of USD 50 million per annum, an IRR of 111% and a USD 630 per oz All in Sustaining Cost (“AISC”), giving us a huge amount of confidence in the economic potential our projects. Interestingly this was conducted on a USD 1,750 per oz gold price.
The Company’s latest announcement re the requirement for further information for the granting of the MTUP at Kochang was frustrating for the Board, in particular as we were advised by our lawyers and permitting consultants that all legal requirements had been covered in our c.800-page submission. The request for greater detail with regards to measures to reduce the risk of environmental impact and to conduct a successful wider community consultation will be carried out and whilst there can obviously be no guarantee, the Company remains expectant that the MTUPs will be granted. Due to the requests for further information at Kochang, we have now sought an extension of the MTUP application in process at Gubong to ensure that the above issues are taken into account.
In the Philippines we signed an agreement with a large local company, whose owners have decades of experience in mining, to develop the high grade Batangas project. We had previously written down the Project due to the previous government’s stance on mining; but with the changing of government, resource development is very much in vogue. The JV covers the entire Batangas Project area, which has a total JORC compliant resource of 440,000 ounces, including a maiden ore reserve of 128,000 ounces (including silver credits). Exploration expenditure to the tune of c.USD 20 million has been invested. The community consultation is already underway, and we anticipate further news on this and an update from our partners re. progress.
The Company successfully raised GBP 230,000 in the year ended 2022 and a further GBP 1,215,000 through our newly appointed broker SI Capital. Together with this and the good progress made re-establishing the projects, the Company is in a better place than at the end of 2021. However, a great deal needs to be done during 2023 to make up for the lost time and achieving our objectives of advancing our South Korean and Philippine projects.