Australia-based Perseus Mining said it has secured $135 million US in debt and equity funding to bankroll the development of its Sissingue gold project in Cote D’Ivoire.
Canada-based Teranga Gold struck a $62.95 million US deal to buy Australia’s Gryphon Minerals and its Banfora gold project in Burkina Faso.
The deals put Sissingue and Banfora on a development growth path, shedding some of the uncertainty that has dogged these projects in recent years, according to a report in The Australian.
Analysts expect more mergers and acquisitions in the West African-focused gold arena driven by strong acquirers in North America, Financial Review reported.
Perseus in April helped secure its bid to expand its presence in West Africa by buying London-listed Amara Mining and Endeavour Mining’s acquisition of True Gold Mining. Endeavor has headquarters in Cayman Islands, with four mines in Africa including Côte d’Ivoire, Mali, Ghana, and Burkina Faso.
Perseus also owns the Edikan mine in Ghana but has long wanted to develop a second mine to spread its operational risk. Its reliance on Edikan hurt the company when the mine was hit by power issues in recent years.
The Amara Mining acquisition gave Perseus the big Yaouré gold project in Cote D’Ivoire, but that project has a longer path towards production and a larger capital expenditure than Sissingue.
The new funding will let Perseus complete a feasibility study at Yaouré and step up exploration there and beyond.
The investments will allow Perseus to get Sissingue into production within 14 months, followed by Yaoure, Managing director Jeff Quartermaine told The Australian.
The Yaouré gold project in Côte d’Ivoire is one of West Africa’s highest quality development-stage projects and has the potential for a large-scale, long-life and low-cost gold operation, according to JuniorMiningNetwork.
