Minmet buy Crushing plant for €1.3m

International gold mining and exploration company Minmet has acquired a plant and equipment operator at its gold mine in northern Sweden for €1.3m.

The Crushing Plant team of eleven employees have been offered continued employment with the Company under the terms of the agreements with the vendor and in accordance with Swedish employment law.

It has previously been run by a third party contractor since the mine opened and is already fully integrated with the Company's existing plant, equipment and facilities.

Rolf L Nordstr, Chairman of MinMet, said: "Securing ownership of the Crushing Plant gives the Company the ability to strengthen our control over all disciplines in the mine.

"In addition to the importance of securing control over the Crushing Plant we are also released from obligations to source additional services with our former main sub-contractor, the principal one being the negotiation of the mining contract.

"With control over these important elements of our operations we expect to achieve immediate cost savings due to securing these services directly, independent of sub-contractors. These developments will assist in optimising revenues from our operations," Nordstr added.

An application has been made to the Irish Stock Exchange for a total of 7,617,828 New Ordinary Shares to be admitted for trading to the Exploration Securities Market of the Irish Stock Exchange.

Dealings are expected to begin in these shares on April, 8 2004.