Bluebird Merchant Ventures Ltd / EPIC: BMV.L / Market: FTSE / Sector: Mining

04 September 2023

Bluebird Merchant Ventures Ltd ('Bluebird' or 'the Company')

TR-1 Notification

Bluebird Merchant Ventures Ltd, a gold company primarily focused on bringing historic mines back into production, has received a TR-1 Notification relating to a sale of shares that took place last week.  The sale of the shares is part of the previously announced transaction agreed between Catalyse Capital Ltd ('Catalyse'), a long running and supportive shareholder of Bluebird, who agreed to acquire Southern Gold Limited's 122.5 million shares in the Company through a number of staged purchases over the coming months (see RNS 23 August 2023). The Board believes that the share purchase by Catalyse, that recognises the true potential of the Company's South Korean and Filipino gold projects, removes a significant perceived 'overhang' in the trading of Bluebird's shares and allow investors to focus on the inherent value of the three-project portfolio. 

The TR-1 Notification is set out below.

The Company wishes to remind shareholders that it is a non-UK issuer for the purposes of the Disclosure Guidance and Transparency Rules. As such, a person must notify the issuer of the percentage of its voting rights he holds as a shareholder if the percentage of voting rights reaches, exceeds, or falls below 5%, 10%, 15%, 20%, 25%, 30%, 50% and 75%. 

TR-1: Standard form for notification of major holdings

1. Issuer Details

ISIN

VGG118701058

Issuer Name

BLUEBIRD MERCHANT VENTURES LTD

UK or Non-UK Issuer

Non-UK

2. Reason for Notification

An acquisition or disposal of voting rights

3. Details of person subject to the notification obligation

Name

Southern Gold Limited

City of registered office (if applicable)

STEPNEY

Country of registered office (if applicable)

Australia

4. Details of the shareholder

Full name of shareholder(s) if different from the person(s) subject to the notification obligation, above

City of registered office (if applicable)

Country of registered office (if applicable)

5. Date on which the threshold was crossed or reached

29-Aug-2023

6. Date on which Issuer notified

31-Aug-2023

7. Total positions of person(s) subject to the notification obligation

8. Notified details of the resulting situation on the date on which the threshold was crossed or reached

8A. Voting rights attached to shares

8B1. Financial Instruments according to (DTR5.3.1R.(1) (a))

8B2. Financial Instruments with similar economic effect according to (DTR5.3.1R.(1) (b))

9. Information in relation to the person subject to the notification obligation

1. Person subject to the notification obligation is not controlled by any natural person or legal entity and does not control any other undertaking(s) holding directly or indirectly an interest in the (underlying) issuer.

10. In case of proxy voting

Name of the proxy holder

The number and % of voting rights held

The date until which the voting rights will be held

11. Additional Information

12. Date of Completion

31-Aug-2023

13. Place Of Completion

Adelaide, South Australia

This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of article 7 of the market abuse regulation EU 596/2014 ("MAR").

**ENDS**

For further information please visit https://bluebirdmv.com or contact:

Colin Patterson                                 Bluebird Merchant Ventures Ltd               Email: colin@bluebirdmv.com

Nick Emmerson                                SI Capital                                                        Tel: 01483413500

About Bluebird

Bluebird Merchant Ventures Ltd (BMV.L) is a London listed South Korea-focused resources company centred on bringing historically producing gold mines back into production. The Company, led by a team of proven mine rehabilitation experts, currently has two 100% owned licensed high grade narrow vein mining projects, the Kochang Gold and Silver Project ('Kochang') and the Gubong Gold Project ('Gubong'), which each have a defined route to low cost/ low capex production with a cumulative target of producing 100,000 oz + Au per annum. 

The management team has invested cUS$2 million personally into the Company and believe, following analysis of historic production and exploration data, as well as extensive sampling, geological, geophysical, and engineering studies, there is potential for in excess of 1.5 million oz of mineable gold in its Korean projects alone.

Kochang is an epithermal vein deposit with parallel vertical ore bodies covering 8.3 sq km that reportedly produced 110,000 oz of gold and 5.9 million oz of silver between 1961 and 1975.  Consisting of a gold and silver mine, there are currently four main veins and a number of parallel subsidiary veins vein which have been identified, as well as a newly identified cross-cutting vein. Historic drilling indicates the veins continue to depth below the current 150m mine and mapping shows the veins on surface providing potential above and below the old workings. The veins extend to the NE providing a strike length of 2.5km with 600m between the two mines not exploited.  There is potential to expand operations to the southwest/northeast and to depth, as well as exploit the already mined areas. The total resource potential is between 550,000 and 700,000 tonnes, with a range of grades between 5.2 g/t to 6.6 g/t gold, and 27.3 g/t to 34.8 g/t silver.  Following the granting of a Mountain Use permit, there is an estimated 6-to-9-month development time to trial mining.

Gubong, which was historically the second largest gold mine in South Korea has 9 granted tenements covering c.25 sq km.  Gubong is moderately dipping with 9 veins extending 500m below surface and known to extend at least a further 250m. However, the production opportunity for Bluebird prior to looking at deepening the mine is the 25 levels already developed with all the remnants and unmined areas left by the original miners.  The 25 levels extend over 120km in total length which indicates the size of the opportunity. The Korea Resources Corporation ('KORES') estimated 2.34M tonnes at some 7.3g/t Au garnered from 57 drill holes over 17,715.3 metres.  With additional sampling, mapping, pit modelling and grade analysis, plus the fact that Gubong is an orogenic deposit, which typically have a depth of 2km compared to the current depth of 500m, the Board believe it has a geological potential of 1 million + oz Au in-situ, plus an estimated additional 300,000 oz Au from satellite ore bodies.

Additionally, the Company has the highly prospective Batangas Gold Exploration Project in the Philippines, where it has an agreement with a Philippine company, whose owners have decades of experience in mining, to develop the Project.  The JV covers the entire Batangas Project area, which has a current 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.$20m has already been invested.  Work is focused on completing Exploration and Environmental Work Programmes initially targeting the high-grade Lobo area, although there is excellent exploration potential across the licence with high-grade targets already identified and 14km of identified mineralised structures.  The staged agreement is based on the JV partner achieving defined development goals and provides Bluebird with a free carry on the development of Batangas with a view to advancing to construction.