17 December 2004 – LAWFUEL – First for law news – International law firm Norton Rose has advised on fund raisings undertaken by two AIM listed gold mining companies, Oxus Gold plc (“Oxus”) and Cluff Gold plc (“Cluff”). Both transactions were announced on 30 November 2004.
Norton Rose acted for RBC Capital Markets, the sole book-runner and lead manager on Oxus’ £30.6 million fund raising. Oxus will use the funds to complete the construction of the Jeeroy gold mine, which according to Oxus is the largest known unexploited gold deposit in the Kyrgyz Republic, as well as for the expansion of the company’s operating Amantaytau Goldfields mine in Uzbekistan and for general working capital.
Oxus placed 17,000 units, each comprising of 1,600 new ordinary shares to be issued using a “cash-box” structure and £1,000 of unlisted convertible redeemable loan notes. Assuming that all the loan notes are converted, the total number of shares to be issued will be 61.2 million.
Norton Rose also acted for Numis Securities, as Nominated Adviser, in relation to Cluff’s £6.5 million placing, listing and admission to AIM on 15 December. The funds raised will be used to develop several exploration projects in West Africa and Zimbabwe.
The Norton Rose team for both transactions was lead by corporate finance partners Mark Bankes and Raj Karia, with assistance from Will Seivewright and Mark Ward on the Oxus deal and Thomas Colmer and Megan O’Leary on the Cluff deal. US securities law advice was provided by partner, Tom Vita, who was assisted by Steve Azzariti and Jessica Mider. Tax advice was provided by partner, Dominic Stuttaford.
Stringer Saul advised Oxus and Maclay Murray & Spens advised Cluff.
Norton Rose has a respected and experienced mining practice, which acts for both a string of major banks and mining companies and which is consistently ranked by the Legal 500 as one of London’s top tier law firms for international mining and minerals work. The Oxus and Cluff deals follow a year of activity for the Norton Rose mining practice, including the completion of the Ashanti Anglogold Merger earlier in the year, advising Peter Hambro Mining plc on its fund raising and on the demerger of its titanium interests to a new company, Aricom plc, and the subsequent listing of Aricom plc on AIM, continuing to advise Dundee Precious Metals in relation to its Bulgarian gold assets, advising Williams de Broë as Nominated Adviser, in relation to Western Canadian Coal Corporation’s listing and admission to AIM, advising Goldfields in relation to its proposed merger with IAMGold, advising RBC Capital Markets, Rand Merchant Bank and JP Morgan Securities Ltd, as joint lead managers, in connection with the international private placement by Mvelaphanda Resources Limited, a “black economic empowerment” mining and exploration company and admission to AIM for Falkland Gold and Minerals Limited.
