Gold miner Centamin ramps up stake in Nyota Minerals

Egypt-focused mining company Centamin has increased its stake in AIM-listed Nyota Minerals to further develop the Arabian-Nubian Shield, an area of land that straddles parts of North East Africa and the Middle East. It includes regions of Egypt, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Sudan and Saudi Arabia and is highly mineralised. The FTSE 250-listed gold mining company subscribed for 38.5m new ordinary shares for a consideration of £0.8m in the firm placing and a further 42.5m new ordinary shares for a consideration of £0.9m in the conditional placing announced by Nyota on Thursday.Following the firm placing, Centamin will own 128.5m ordinary shares in Nyota equalling 17% of Nyota's enlarged share capital. Following the conditional placing becoming unconditional in all respects, Centamin will own 171m ordinary shares in Nyota, representing 19.87% of Nyota's enlarged share capital.Previously, Centamin had been the holder of 90m shares in Nyota via its wholly-owned subsidiary Centamin Holdings.Centamin's share price was down 2.43% to 54.30p at 11:12 on Thursday. Nyota Minerals' share price was unchanged at 2.20p.MF