Kinross completes sale of Chirano mine in Ghana
Kinross Gold Corporation has announced that it has completed the sale of all its interest in the Chirano mine in Ghana to Asante Gold Corporation for a total consideration of $225 million in cash and shares.
“With the completion of the sale of Chirano, we are focused on generating value from our rebalanced portfolio, with approximately 70% of our production in 2022 expected from our mines in the Americas,” said J. Paul Rollinson, Kinross President and CEO. “We would like to thank our employees at Chirano for their hard work and contributions to the Company. The team at Chirano exemplifies our commitments to safety, environmental stewardship and generating benefits for local communities. We are also pleased we are able to continue to participate in Chirano’s success through our shareholdings in Asante, who also owns the neighbouring Bibiani mine, which recently completed its first gold pour after restarting operations.”
Kinross received $60 million in cash and 34,962,584 Asante common shares (“Asante Shares”) having a total value of $36.2 million based on an Asante Share price of $1.04 (CAD$1.34) per share, which is the volume-weighted average price of each Asante Share for the 30 trading days ending August 9, 2022. The Company has agreed that it will hold its Asante Shares, which represent 9.9% of ownership in Asante, for at least 12 months following the close of the transaction.
Kinross will also receive a total deferred payment of $128.8 million in cash, with $55 million payable on the six-month anniversary of closing, and $36.9 million payable on each of the one-year and two-year anniversaries of closing. While the transaction payment terms were amended from the previous announcement on April 25, 2022, the total purchase price of $225 million remains the same. The deferred payments are being secured by guarantees and pledges of downstream entities that own the Chirano mine.
