Ovoca Gold Plc (“Ovoca” or the “Company”) was founded in 1985 in Ireland and since inception has been involved in natural resource development.  Ovoca entered Russia in 2004 with the acquisition of Norplat Limited, a company operating in the Murmansk Region which owns the licenses for the Pellapakh molybdenum-copper-gold ore body and the Oleninskoye gold ore body.

In 2006 Ovoca acquired 74% of OAO Ajax, a Russian company that owned the Goltsovoye silver deposit in the Magadan Region, in the Russian Far East directly North of Japan. Goltsovoye at the time was one of the world’s largest, highest grade silver deposits as yet un-mined. Ovoca carried out confirmatory drilling to verify historical Soviet data, established a JORC resource, completed a Bankable Feasibility Study and secured project financing to build a mine. At the time of financing, Goltsovoye had a M,I&I silver resource of 45mn ounces at a grade of 860 grams per ton, projected output of 6 million ounces per year, and a cash cost of $4.11 per ounce. Goltsovoye, once in production, was set to be the world’s seventh largest primary silver mine. The economic crisis of 2008 coincided with the financing, which was later withdrawn. As such, Ovoca sold Goltsovoye to OAO Polymetal for a cash and share consideration worth $47.7 million at deal closing on 23 January 2009. The consideration was a 194% premium to the Company’s market capitalization, and was an important success, particularly in light of the overall market condition and continuing global economic malaise.

In January 2010 Ovoca closed on the purchase of 100% of the Nevsko-Pestrinskoye, Stakhanovsky and Rassoshinskaya gold exploration and development projects in the Magadan Region. Nevsko-Pestrinskoye completely surrounds the Goltsovoye license area and Ovoca intends to capitalize past knowledge of Goltsovoye ore body extensions which are on the Nevsko-Pestrinskoye license. Stakhanovsky is a fast track development project with power and infrastructure already in place. The ore body at Stakhanovsky is not complex geologically and has simple metallurgy with potentially significant gold recoveries from gravitation methods alone. Rassoshinskaya is a potentially world class gold project which the Company is aggressively advancing.

Ovoca has three projects in the Magadan Region, Russia. The Magadan Region is located in the Far East part of the country, directly North of Japan. The region's total population is 170,000 and cities which are important for Ovoca's operations include Magadan (population 100,000), Susuman (7,800), Omsukchan (4,500) and Seimchan (3,700).

Ovoca's three properties in the Magadan Region are: Stakhanovsky, Rassoshinskaya, Nevsko-Pestrinskoye.

Stakhanovsky is located approximately 40 kilometres north of Susuman, the second largest city in the Magadan Region. It is accessible by year-round road and there is power infrastructure on site. Internal preliminary estimates suggest a gold resource (non JORC code nor Russian standard compliant) of over 700,000 ounces. The Company intends to put Stakhanovsky into production by 2013.

Rassoshinskaya is in the North Eastern part of the Magadan Region about 200 kilometres from the town of Simchan. There is no nearby infrastructure. Rassoshinskaya hosts an epithermal gold deposit named Olcha, which is the focus of Ovoca's exploration program. Olcha and nearby satellite deposits have the potential to host a high grade multi-million ounce gold resource.

Nevsko-Pestrinskoye is located in the central part of the Magadan Region near the town of Omsukchan. A year-round road and powerline are near the site. The license completely surrounds the Goltsovoye silver deposit, which was owned by the Company from 2006 - 2009 and sold to JSC Polymetal for US$47.7 million at the time of closing. Ovoca intends to investigate and explore known mineral occurrences that extend beyond the Goltsovoye license area onto Nevsko-Pestrinskoye.

Capital Structure

The capital of the Company is made up of Ordinary Shares.

The number of shares in issue is 88,458,806

The Company does have any Treasury Shares. 

The percentage of shares not in public hands is approximately 39.19%.

The major shareholders at August 2011 are:

Mikhail Mogutov BBHISL Nominees Limited	13.59%
BBHISL Nominees Ltd	11.38%
Vidacos Nominees Ltd	9.30%
Leonid Skoptsov	5.71%
Citibank Nominees (Ireland)	5.70%
Euroclear Nominees Limited	5.03%

 

There are no restrictions on the transfer of the shares of the Company.

Number of Options in Issue are 6,640,000

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Updated 16.10.11