AngloGold Ashanti Australia has cleared another hurdle in its journey to acquire the Lake Carey gold project in Western Australia.
AngloGold has been in talks with Matsa Resources for over a year, declaring late last month the companies had executed an option agreement for $101 million.
The object of AngloGold’s desire is Matsa’s Lake Carey project, which is estimated to contain mineral resources of 949,000 ounces (oz) at 2.5 grams per tonne (g/t) of gold and a mineral reserve estimate of 104,000oz at 2.4g/t of gold.
Ore from Lake Carey has previously been processed at AngloGold’s nearby Sunrise Dam operations, with the miner intending to use Lake Carey to bolster the Sunrise operation permanently.
“This transaction has been a long time in the making,” Matsa executive chair Paul Poli said when the deal was announced.
“To attribute a value of approximately $101M to the Lake Carey gold project speaks volumes for the exploration potential of this project.”
Matsa has now announced that a key consideration of the deal has been achieved, with the company receiving written waivers from each third party with a right of first refusal (ROFR) over specific tenements involved in the transaction, confirming they will not exercise their ROFR
A holder that exercised its ROFR or withheld its consent to the transaction would have allowed AngloGold Ashanti to either terminate the agreement, or alternatively exclude the specific tenement, or tenements, from the transaction.
With the Lake Carey transaction given the green light to proceed, Matsa will turn its attention to its remaining assets, which include the neighbouring Devon Pit, Fortitude North, and Red October gold mines.
These mines are all on care and maintenance, but Matsa intends to use the funds from the sale to begin bringing them online.
