Beacon Hill Resources shares soar following railway lease deal

Shares in AIM-listed Beacon Hill Resources jumped sharply on Friday morning following the company's announcement that it had signed an operating lease agreement with Thelo Rolling Stock Leasing Proprietary (Thelo) for the provision of rolling stock on the Sena railway line in Mozambique.

The company said that the agreement, which had been a prerequisite for it being able to obtain final rail allocation confirmation from Portos e Caminhos de Ferro de Mocambique, represented a "milestone" for the company.

Under the terms of the transaction, Thelo will lease five locomotoves to Beacon Hill Resources' subsidiary Minas Moatize Limitada (Minas) for a term of 10 years.

A further 90 Gondola-type coal wagon are additionally to be leased by Thelo to Minas, also for a term of 10 years and Minas has appointed RRL Grindrod Locomotives Proprietary as its rail services operator.

Commenting on the deal, Rowan Karstel, Managing Director of Beacon Hill Resources, said: "We look forward to working with our new rail consortium. The new rolling stock is an important milestone for our coal export operations ion the Sena Railway Line."

Beacon Hill Resources' share price was up 27.93% to 3.55p at 09:08 on Friday morning.

MF