Aim-listed Shanta Gold has entered into a definitive agreement to buy miner Barrick Gold’s Acacia Exploration subsidiary, which is based in Kenya.
In exchange, Barrick will become Shanta’s fifth-largest shareholder, with a 6.4% interest.
The subsidiary’s primary asset is a 100% participating interest in licences held by Afriore, which includes an existing high-grade resource called the West Kenya project.
“The West Kenya acquisition is significant for Shanta Gold, creating an East African gold mining champion with realisable growth prospects and high asset quality across three attractive gold projects.
“Shanta has successfully operated in East Africa for nearly 20 years and this acquisition is a natural extension in terms of geographic footprint, skillset, size and mining method. One of Shanta’s competitive advantages is being able to operate long hole open stoping operations more efficiently than its peers which lends itself well to the advancement of the West Kenya project,” said Shanta CEO Eric Zurrin.
The West Kenya project has an inferred mineral resource estimate of 1.1-million ounces of gold, grading 12.6 g/t. The project requires in-fill drilling and technical studies before a construction decision can be made.
The transaction increases Shanta’s high-quality gold resource inventory to more than three-million ounces of contained gold.