Welcome to a roundup of some of our financing, exploration, and development stories on Theassay.com over the last week. To keep up to date with all the latest headlines, subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Financing and M&A
Over the last seven days in financing news, Centaurus Metals Limited (ASX: CTM) has entered into a transaction agreement with Vale Base Metals whereby Vale has agreed to extinguish its right to 100% of the nickel offtake from the Jaguar Nickel Sulphide Project in northern Brazil, in exchange for an increase in their existing royalty from the project.
The offtake rights stem from the original Jaguar sale & purchase agreement (SPA) of 30 August 2019, when Centaurus acquired 100% of the Jaguar Project from Vale.
Vale has now agreed to extinguish the offtake rights in exchange for an additional royalty over Jaguar on the same terms as the royalty arrangements included as part of the original Jaguar SPA, which increases Vale’s total net operating revenue royalty over Jaguar to 1.75% for nickel sulphate, and 2.00% for nickel concentrate and other products produced from the Jaguar Project.
Ascot Resources Ltd. (TSX: AOT | OTCQX: AOTVF) has entered into a definitive credit agreement with Nebari Gold Fund which consists of US$14M subordinated convertible credit facility, the Nebari convertible facility.
The Nebari facility will refinance Ascot’s existing Beedie convertible facility.
Derek White, president, and CEO, commented, “We are pleased to have found a capable and aligned financing partner in Nebari to refinance our existing convertible facility. In extending the maturity date from late-2024 to mid-2027, we enhance our operating flexibility by minimizing pressure on our balance sheet or our capital structure.”
Meanwhile, Kefi Gold and Copper plc (AIM: KEFI) has confirmed that all outstanding major financing conditions requiring Ethiopian government input in relation to the company’s Tulu Kapi Gold Project in Ethiopia have now been met.
This significant development enables the Tulu Kapi individual syndicate members to now proceed to final committee and board reviews and approvals for the US$390M project finance package as set out in the final umbrella agreement described in the company’s announcement on 27 April 2023.
New exploration and development
In exploration and development news, Iceni Gold Limited (ASX: ICL) has confirmed a high-grade vein at the Everleigh Well.
The Christmas Gift target at Everleigh Well is a multi-element UFF anomaly, coincident with targets E1 (geological), EW01 (geophysical) and SY43 (syenite target).
Ongoing fieldwork has confirmed the presence of the outcropping high-grade vein with abundant visible gold.
The preliminary multi-element geochemistry results from the high-grade vein reveal a geochemical signature, including Au, Ag, Cu, Hg, W, (Pt) and Pd. Gold assays from this high-grade vein returned a peak value of 18,207g/t Au.
Technical director, David Nixon, said “Ongoing fieldwork and sampling confirms the presence of mineralization within the Christmas Gift soil anomaly. Multi-element assays from the high-grade outcropping quartz vein with visible gold in the Everleigh target area show a clear geochemical signature for this mineralization, including Au, Ag, Cu, Hg, W, (Pt) and Pd.”
Drilling results
Additionally, Galileo Mining Ltd (ASX: GAL) has identified a new zone of platinum group element (PGE) enrichment in exploration results from drilling 600m north of the Callisto palladium-nickel discovery at the Norseman project in Western Australia.
A PGE enriched high-magnesium unit has been identified while drilling the upper portion of the layered intrusion. This unit can be differentiated from surrounding layers through chromium, titanium, and vanadium geochemistry. Copper levels are low and nickel levels are in line with background levels for ultramafic rocks.
The newly identified ultramafic unit is interpreted to have potential for “reef style” PGE mineralization where high grades of PGEs are found within thin layers of ultramafic sill complexes.
Type examples of PGE reef style mineralization include the Stillwater Complex in the US and the Bushveld Complex in South Africa.
Other company news
Steppe Gold Ltd. (TSX: STGO) has announced that Byambatseren Tsogbadrakh will assume the role of president.
Ms. Byambatseren Tsogbadrakh is a founding member of the Steppe Gold team, and she has held progressively senior positions in the company over recent years.
“I am excited to welcome Byambatseren to the management team in the role of president. With our Phase 2 expansion progressing, we are growing our team across the company. I am most proud that we continue to progress Mongolian nationals through the ranks of the company and build our home-grown talent base,” Chairman and CEO, Bataa Tumur-Ochir, said.
Finally, Ionic Rare Earths Limited (ASX: IXR) has confirmed that production of high purity, recycled magnet rare earth oxides (REOs) has begun at the demonstration plant at Ionic Technologies International Ltd. Belfast facility in the UK.
The company has developed rare earth element separation and refining technology and applied this to the recycling of spent permanent Neodymium-Iron-Boron (NdFeB) magnets.
The process uses a hydrometallurgical process to extract the rare earth elements (REE), then separate the individual magnet REEs within – Neodymium (Nd), Praseodymium (Pr), Dysprosium (Dy) and Terbium (Tb) – and finally refine to high purity individual magnet rare earths oxides (REO).
