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Solomon Capital today announced that the acceptance condition to its cash Offer to acquire the entire issued and to be issued share capital of Metals Exploration not already owned by it, the terms of which were announced on 23 July 2010, has now been satisfied. As the acceptance condition was the only condition to the Offer, the Offer is hereby declared wholly unconditional. The Offer Document was posted to Metals Exploration Shareholders on 20 August 2010.

As at 1.00 p.m. on Friday 3 September 2010, Solomon had received valid acceptances of the Offer in respect of 26,650,626 Metals Exploration Shares, representing approximately 9.88 per cent. of Metals Exploration’s current issued share capital.

For futher details and to read the relevant announcements please see the Company News area. The documents required relating to the offer are made available on the Solomon Capital document listing page of this website.

Metals Exploration Plc announced today the results of its Feasibility Study and a resource update for the Runruno gold-molybdenum Project on the island of Luzon in the northern Philippines. 

Overview:

• Study confirms the viability of a project producing an average of 96,700 ozs of gold per annum over a mine life of 10.4 years
• Average production Years 1-5: 101,800 ozs gold per annum; Years 6-10: 92,700 ozs gold per annum
• 780,000 ozs gold classified, for the first time, as Proven and Probable Mining Reserve
• Average forecast operating cost $477/oz gold
• Capital cost forecast to be US$149.3 million - payback within 3.5 years at US$1,000 gold
• IRR 20% at $1,000/oz gold (ungeared and after tax)
• Moly credits not included – testwork continues

Summary
The Feasibility Study has been project managed by the Company, with all material components undertaken by independent external consultants including Mining Associates (Resource and Mining), Goldfields and SGS (Metallurgical and Testwork), Lycopodium (Process Engineering), Leighton (Constructability and Capital Cost Review), GHD (Tailings Storage Facility, Detailed Pit Design, Mine Schedule), Aboitiz (Power Supply), AECOM (Roads, Environment and Permitting) and SGV (Taxation).

The study has been based on a mineable reserve prepared by Mining Associates with an open pit mining operation and biological leaching using the proven BIOX® process combined with conventional carbon in leach treatment to recover gold to doré bullion and molybdenum to a saleable molybdenum product.

Molybdenum market outlook positive - Mining Journal

Metals Exploration Plcis pleased to announce the award of the Environmental Compliance Certificate (“ECC”) for the Runruno Gold-Molybdenum Project in the Philippines.

• ECC signed by Acting Secretary of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (“DENR”) under Presidential Decree No. 1586 (known as the “Philippine Environmental Impact Statement System”)
• The ECC was issued after satisfactory evaluation of the project’s Environmental Impact Statement (“EIS”) by the Environmental Management Bureau (“EMB”)
• The ECC and EIS process has been conducted with the full participation and involvement of the local community and all relevant stakeholders
• Under the ECC the Company is committed to implement measures presented in the EIS to protect and mitigate against any adverse impacts on the health and welfare of community and the environment
• Securing the ECC is a significant milestone following the award of the Financial or Technical Assistance Agreement in October 2009, demonstrating continued support from the Philippine Government for the development of the Runruno project

Metals Exploration Plc announces guidance on the updated economic parameters of its Runruno project on the island of Luzon in the northern Philippines. The Company also provides an indication of anticipated news flow over the next quarter.

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