Roxgold to acquire the Séguéla Gold Project in Côte d'Ivoire
Gold mining company Roxgold Inc. has entered into an agreement with Newcrest West Africa Holdings Pty Ltd to acquire a portfolio of 11 exploration permits in Côte d'Ivoire, which includes the Séguéla gold project, for total upfront consideration of $20 million.
The transaction provides for highly prospective exploration permits covering 3,298 km2 in the attractive mining jurisdiction of Côte d'Ivoire with significant scope to build upon existing data and high-quality exploration work completed to date.
There is also the Near-term development potential at the flagship Séguéla project, which hosts the Antenna deposit and a number of satellite opportunities and acquisition cost of $20 million upon closing with a further payment of $10 million upon first gold production from the subject land package.
John Dorward, President and Chief Executive Officer of Roxgold commented, "Roxgold is excited to acquire Séguéla and the related permits from Newcrest. This acquisition represents a meaningful addition to our growth pipeline, providing a key second asset, immediate additional resource upside and a large prospective land package all in an accretive transaction for Roxgold shareholders. Rarely does such a large and carefully assembled land package become available from one of the world's leading gold producers and Séguéla is expected to materially increase Roxgold's overall resource inventory, particularly after we bring the deposit up to National Instrument 43-101 standards later this year. We also believe there is substantial near-term exploration upside at this deposit, and regionally, with the opportunity to significantly advance Séguéla in the near term."
Paul Weedon, Vice President, Exploration added, "This acquisition provides Roxgold with a very attractive exploration portfolio that includes highly prospective early stage opportunities as well as an advanced stage exploration asset in Séguéla. Acquiring these assets from Newcrest allows us to build upon the high quality exploration work they have completed to date. We are eager to get to work on this portfolio to fully explore the potential upside we see at these assets."
Roxgold is acquiring the Tenements from Newcrest for upfront consideration of $20 million. Roxgold is also committing to a further payment of $10 million in cash upon production of the first gold from any of the areas covered by the Tenements.
Closing of the Transaction is dependent upon, amongst other things, the renewal of certain tenements and the approval from the Minister of Mines of Côte d'Ivoire and other required regulatory approvals.
The Tenements are located across prospective Birimian greenstone belts in the established mining jurisdiction of Côte d'Ivoire and includes highly prospective early stage projects as well as advanced stage projects throughout Côte d'Ivoire.
To date, approximately $21 million dollars has been invested in exploration and approximately 117,000 metres of drilling has been completed on the Tenements, allowing for significant scope to build upon existing data and exploration work completed to date.
Included in the portfolio is the advanced exploration Séguéla gold project that hosts the near surface Antenna gold deposit. Séguéla is located approximately 240 kilometres north-west of Yamoussoukro, the political capital of Côte d'Ivoire, and approximately 480 kilometres north-west of Abidjan, the commercial capital of the country.
The Antenna gold deposit consists of near-surface, potentially open pittable mineralization and is ideally located near existing infrastructure including grid power, transport and water resources.
Newcrest has been operating in Côte d'Ivoire since 2010 and discovered the Antenna deposit in 2016. Roxgold intends to keep key infrastructure and personnel in place to ensure a smooth transition of activities at site. A maiden mineral resource was declared at Séguéla's Antenna deposit in December 2017 in accordance with JORC 2012.