De Grey Mining, the ASX-listed gold player with a market capitalisation of $2.15 billion, has struck a deal to acquire a 50 per cent stake in a gold project being developed Toronto-listed Novo Resources in Western Australia.
De Grey Mining’s Mallina gold project is neighbours with Novo’s Becher.
Street Talk understands De Grey will invest about $25 million in Novo’s Becher gold project, which sits next to its own flagship 11.7 million ounces Mallina operations in the Pilbara.
De Grey is expected to take over the exploration management at Becher, which would now become a 50:50 joint venture between itself and Novo. The miner will pay the $25 million as exploration spend over the coming four years. Sources said the two sides were thrashing out the final agreements of deal on Wednesday afternoon, Perth time.
An announcement is expected as early as Thursday morning. De Grey is also expected to emerge as a significant shareholder on Novo’s register.
It is understood to Novo will use the momentum from De Grey’s interest in its assets to stitch up a dual listing. The size of the associated capital raise has yet to be decided, but Argonaut Securities is understood to be in the lead position to run the book build to bring the company to the ASX.
De Grey has made the investment while ASX-listed Gold Road Resources sits near the 19.99 per cent mark on its register. Gold Road’s move, in August, had fund managers counting days until a follow-up bid would land. They have obviously been disappointed, so far.
The first hit came right after De Grey published pre-feasibility results. If that timing is anything to go by, Gold Road would be weighing its M&A appetite diligently now as De Grey heads towards a definitive feasibility study later this year. Gold Road is smaller, at $1.9 billion market capitalisation. It has widely been expected to need a partner should it eventually lob a bid.
GOR Price at posting:
$1.75 Sentiment: None Disclosure: Not Held
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