China’s Shandong Gold Mining has moved to buy another gold junior, with ASX- and TSX-listed Cardinal Resources on Thursday announcing that it had entered into a bid implementation agreement with the Chinese miner.
Shandong has agreed to buy Australia-headquartered Cardinal Resources, which operates in Ghana, for A$0.60 a share in cash, beating the preliminary proposal announced by Nord Gold on March 16 of A$0.45775 a share.
The Shandong offer, which is a 75.5% premium to Cardinal’s 20-day unaffected volume-weighted average price and a 39.3% premium to its 20-day volume weighted average price up to June 18, values Cardinal at about A$300-million.
Cardinal CEO and MD Archie Koimtsidis said that the board had negotiated a strong offer, which would deliver significant premium to its market price.
“This is an opportunity for shareholders to crystalize their investment in Cardinal at an attractive price, and I am pleased that Shandong Gold is committed to getting on with development of Namdini to establish the first long-life gold mine in the Upper East Region of Ghana, bringing many significant and long-lasting benefits to the local community and Ghana,” he said in a statement.
Cardinal is focused on the development of the Namdini project with a proved and probable ore reserve of 5.1-million ounces and is now advancing the feasibility study.
Shandong has agreed to provide Cardinal with interim funding of $11.96-million by subscribing for 26-million ordinary shares in Cardinal at an issue price of $0.46 a share.The funds raised by the placement will be used to ensure Cardinal continues advancing the Namdini project towards development and for working capital prior to closing of the Transaction.
Shandong chairperson Li Guohong commented in a statement that the group had a strong track record in environment, social and corporate governance matters and that it would seek to build on its positive track record as it expanded its business into Ghana with the Cardinal transaction.
Last month, Shandong agreed to buy Canada’s TMAC Resources for cash at an equity value of about $149-million.
China’s Zijing Mining has also been actively buying gold juniors, with the company recently scooping up Guyana Goldfields in a cash deal valued at about C$323-million and in December, it bought Continental Gold for C$1.37-billion in cash.