Juniors Goldshore Resources and Sierra Madre on Tuesday announced that they would merge through a reverse takeover of Sierra Madre by Goldshore, creating a new Canadian gold development company.
Goldshore also entered into an agreement to acquire the Moss Lake project, in Ontario, from Wesdome Gold Mines. Under the terms of the agreement, Wesdome will receive C$57-million.
Wesdome will be the combined company’s largest shareholder and will hold about 30% of the shares on a nondiluted basis.
The companies also announced that Goldshore would raise C$25-million through a hard-dollar and flow-through subscription receipt financing, led by Eventus Capital. Goldshore and Sierra Madre currently have a combined total of C$4.4-million in cash on hand.
"We fully believe that Goldshore has assembled the best positioned team to advance Moss Lake which has significant resource growth potential along its 20-km-plus trend. We have already identified several areas of prospective follow-up work and intend to work diligently with the entire Goldshore team to unlock value from the asset," stated Goldshore incoming president and CEO Brett Richards.
The Moss Lake project, west of Thunder Bay, has mineral resources of 1.47-million ounces of gold and inferred resources of 2.51-million ounces of gold in two deposits.
A 2013 preliminary economic assessment pegged its after-tax net present value at C$276-million at a gold price of C$1 629/oz.
MANAGEMENT
Richards will lead the proposed management team of the resulting issuer. Richards has held positions for private equity shareholders in the past including CEO of Banro Corporation, CEO of Midnight Sun Mining, CEO of African Thunder Platinum, CEO of Renew Resources, and CEO of Octéa. He previously served as the transition CEO of Roxgold, CEO of Avocet Mining, and was part of the five-person startup of Katanga Mining. Richards' other publicly listed experience was in senior executive positions with Kinross Gold and Co-Steel.
Gavin Cooper will be CFO and Peter Flindell VP of exploration. The directors include Doug Ramshaw, Victor Cantore, Galen McNamara, Shawn Khunkhun, Brandon Macdonald, Michael Michaud, and Heather Laxton.
In addition, the resulting issuer has assembled a strategic advisory board consisting of former Goldcorp CEO David Garofalo, Skeena Resources chairperson Craig Penny, K92 Mining cofounder and former president Bryan Slusarchuk, Luminex and Lumina senior VP Leo Hathaway, former Ivanhoe Mines CEO Daniel Kunz and former Goldcorp executive Adrian Rothwell.