LONDON (Alliance News) - StratMin Global Resources PLC on Thursday said it is buying Australian gold exploration company Signature Gold Ltd for GBP9.5 million.
StratMin said it had spent "considerable time and effort" evaluating opportunities across a range of industries, and after consulting with "significant shareholders" over the last six months, decided to "pursue as a priority" the acquisition of projects in gold exploration and/or mining. It then identified Signature as an "attractive" acquisition target.
Signature is a specialist Australian gold exploration company focused on large-scale intrusive related gold system assets in Queensland and also holds the option to acquire the Kasperske Hory gold project in the Czech Republic.
StratMin said Signature's portfolio has been "carefully assembled and progressed over a number of years" into a development pipeline of at least half a dozen projects. Approximately AUD15 million worth of exploration expenditure has been incurred to date, generating a "substantial" database of geochemical and geophysical testing results, structural mapping of systems and over 20,000 meters of drilling.
Signature's technical programme has been accredited under the Australian Federal Government R&D Tax Incentive Scheme, which provides a cash rebate to the company of 43.5% of all qualifying expenditure, giving Signature a "significant" cost advantage in development of the portfolio.
StratMin said it aims for Signature to become "one of the world's lowest dollar-per-ounce of discovery cost gold exploration businesses".
Under the acquisition terms, StratMin will pay an option fee of USD250,000 in addition to the issue of equity at a value of GBP9.5 million.
A first tranche of GBP5.5 million will be issued in shares at a price of 2 pence each, and the remaining GBP4.0 million in shares will be issued upon completion of a JORC 2012 compliant resource on Signature's lead project.
As the transaction constitutes a reverse takeover, StratMin's shares have been suspended from trading under AIM rules until publication of the admission document.
By Karolina Kaminska; karolinakaminska@alliancenews.com; @KarolinaAllNews
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