The world’s largest gold miner Barrick Gold has entered into a new joint venture (JV) agreement with Canadian junior Loncor Resources, which has properties in the Ngayu gold belt, about 220 km from the Barrick-operated Kibali mine.
The TSX-listed junior announced this week that its 76.29%-owned subsidiary Adumbi Mining had entered into a JV agreement with Barrick for two exploitation permits covering ground contiguous to the Imva area within the Ngayu gold belt.
This is in addition to the JV agreement between Loncor and Barrick, covering 1 894 km2 of ground in the Ngayu belt.
The terms of the new Barrick JV are similar to Loncor’s ongoing JV. Under the new agreement, Barrick will manage and fund all exploration of the JV permit properties until the completion of a prefeasibility study.
Subject to the DRC’s free-carried interest requirements, Barrick will retain 65% of a special-purpose vehicle (SPV) with Adumbi Mining holding 35%. Adumbi Mining will be required, from that point forward, to fund its pro-rata share of the SPV in order to maintain its 35% interest or be diluted.
“We are pleased to see Barrick’s confidence in the Ngayu gold belt continue to grow. This new Barrick JV further consolidates the control of the Ngayu gold belt by Loncor and Barrick as partners,” commented Loncor CEO Arnold Kondrat.
Earlier in the week, Loncor announced that Barrick had started its core drilling programme on several priority targets in the Ngayu greenstone belt, a move which it said signalled a significant step in the sequence of events necessary to assess numerous areas of potential.
Barrick and Loncor entered into their initial JV agreement in January 2016. Since then, Barrick has conducted various exploratory programmes to define drill targets.
ASX- and LSE-listed Resolute owns 26% of the outstanding shares of Loncor.