South Australian copper junior Havilah Resources on Monday announced that it would sell its Portia and Portia North projects to Broken Hill-based Consolidated Mining and Civil (CMC), freeing up the company’s time and financial resources to focus on its core projects.
Havilah CEO Walter Richards said that the A$14.7-million sale of the Benagerie mining lease, on which the Portia and Portia North projects were located, marked the first transaction in the execution of the company’s copper and cobalt strategy.
“This transaction realises value from our multi-commodity portfolio and will allow us to increase our focus on Mutooroo and Kalkaroo – the two core projects in our strategy – where the opportunity to add value and generate higher returns is greater. Bringing the Portia Gold Mine into production and building a mutually beneficial relationship with CMC has assisted us in achieving this transaction to execute our copper/cobalt strategy,” he commented.
The transaction involves $13.5-million in staged cash payments over 18 months, starting at the end of the month, as well as the immediate replacement of Havilah’s share of the Portia rehabilitation obligation funding of $1.2-million.
Havilah will also receive a 2% net smelter royalty over the proceeds of all metal and concentrate sales derived from the mining lease, as well as a 3.5% NSR over all copper sales more than the current resource of 101 400 t of copper metal.
CMC MD Steve Radford commented that the transaction would launch the contractor as a copper/gold miner in its own right.
CMC has been involved at Portia as a joint venture partner for the past three years, which Radford said stands the company in good stead to advance the mine and project.