Metals Exploration shares plummet amid “difficulties” at Runruno

Shares in Metals Exploration (LON:MTL) plummeted on Tuesday, after the company updated the market on persistent “difficulties” at its Runruno gold mine in the Philippines.

The company said that it is now in “advanced talks” with its major shareholders procure mezzanine finance to cover its loan obligations and working capital requirements of $12 million.

Despite progress made at the project with the BIOX circuit ramped-up strongly to around 50 percent throughput, it has now fallen with “limited material being processed”.

In the statement, the company commented:

“This setback has been disappointing following the relatively good progress made during August. Initial test work points towards the presence of algae in the return process water which has interfered with the performance of the BIOX bacteria, at the higher throughput levels.”

Looking forward, remedies were being investigated to manage the algae affecting the project:

“Engineering solutions have been identified to manage the presence of the algae and are currently being implemented, while further investigations and test work are being undertaken as a basis to continuously mitigate the impacts of algae in the process.”

The group said they would make an announcement about the progress of said finance talks “in due course”.

Metals Exploration plc is a a natural resources exploration and development company operating in the Pacific Rim, particularly focused on the Philippines.

Its main asset is the Runruno Gold-Molybdenum Project on the island of Luzon in the northern Philippines, which was acquired back in 2005, having recently increased its interest in the project to 100 percent.

Back in November of 2016, the company announced made its first gold sale from the Runruno mine.

Metals Exploration Plc is publicly listed on the London Stock Exchange and was admitted onto the AlM market as of 22 October 2004.

Shares in the company are currently down as much as 19.22 percent at 11.31AM (GMT).