Orca shareholders back Perseus' play

17th May 2022 By: Esmarie Iannucci - Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor: Australasia

PERTH (miningweekly.com) – The shareholders of TSX-V listed takeover target Orca Gold have voted overwhelmingly in favour of the takeover offer from dual-listed gold miner Perseus Mining.

Orca this week announced that 99.99% of the votes cast at the company’s shareholder meeting had been cast in favour of the proposed transaction.

Perseus, which owns a 15% interest in Orca, was offering 0.56 Perseus shares for every Orca share held, and based on Perseus’ last closing price, the offer implied a consideration of C$0.896 per Orca share, representing a premium of 62.9% to the last closing price of Orca shares.

The total consideration paid for Orca is estimated at C$215-million, including C$17-million that Perseus previously spent on acquiring the initial stake in the takeover target.

"We are very pleased to obtain overwhelming support from our securityholders at today's special meeting. Receiving this support is one of the final key steps to complete the transaction,” said Orca president and CEO Richard Clark.

The transaction remained subject to final approval from the TSX-V and the TSX, and the granting of final court orders by the Supreme Court of Columbia, at a hearing scheduled for May 18.

Orca’s main asset is a 70% interest in the Block 14 project that is located in northern Sudan near the border with Egypt. It is a large and scalable resource with a mineral resource estimate consisting of an indicated resource of 79.9-million tonnes grading 1.3 g/t gold for 3.3-million ounces of gold and an inferred resource of 18.5-million tonnes grading 1.2 g/t gold for 0.7-million ounces of gold.

The Block 14 project has a probable mineral reserve estimate of 79.9-million tonnes grading 1.1 g/t gold for 2.9-million ounces of gold.

Orca also owns a 31.4% interest in TSX-V-listed Montage, which announced completion of a feasibility study at its cornerstone Koné gold project, located in Côte d’Ivoire, in February