Ortac Resources reversing onto AIM

03/08/2010 Robert Tyerman

Mining investment player Anthony Balme's private Slovac gold venture Ortac Resources plans to join AIM by reversing into Templar Minerals.

Provided the agreement is ratified by a shareholders' meeting in Guernsey, Templar, which raised £3 million in April to pursue an iron ore project in Brazil, will issue shares valued at £7.5 million to Ortac holders and Balme will replace entrepreneurial Australian David Lenigas, who also heads fellow AIM counters Lonrho and LonZim, as chairman of the merged group, which will be called Ortac Resources.

Ortac, like Templar a loss maker so far, says it needs 'substantial further capital' to pursue its Kremnica gold project in Slovakia, potentially holding an estimated 665,800 oz of gold and 5.4 million oz of silver, and must discharge obligations of more than £1 million to its Canadian joint venture partner Tournigan Energy. One solution, according to Ortax, was 'reversing into an existing AIM company with cash' and cashed-up Templar, which found itself unable to proceed wth a planned major investment in Fiji-focused Vatukoula Gold Mines and also pulled out of the Adjara gold project in Georgia because of political instability, seemed to fit the bill.

The enlarged Ortac's chief executive officer will be Vassilios Carellos, co-founder and former boss of AIM-quoted Kryso Resources. Shares in Templar, which raised £9 million through Beaumont Cornish when it floated in 2007, have fallen from 2.25p to 0.92p over the past year and now value the company at £8.2 million.