Canada-based Orea Mining has agreed to purchase Russian gold miner Nordgold’s 55.01% stake in the Montagne d’Or joint venture (JV).
The JV owns a 100% stake in the Montagne d’Or open-pit gold mine development project in French Guiana.
As per the terms of the definitive agreement, the JV has settled €24.6m that was owed to the Russian mining firm. This results in no cash outlay by Orea Mining.
Orea Mining is expected to pay C$100m ($74m) to Nordgold once the former has secured all permits and authorisations required for the development, operation, production and related sales of the mine.
In a press statement, Orea Mining said: “If Nordgold’s shareholders are still under sanctions at the time of the C$100m payment, then the funds will only be processed in compliance with applicable sanction regulations, including being paid to a blocked bank account.”
Orea Mining expects the transaction to close by 28 February 2023 following final regulatory and administrative steps.
The transaction has already received the nod of the French treasury (DG Trésor) and the UK treasury (OFSI).
As per estimates, the Montagne d’Or project holds measured mineral resources of 10.3Mt at 1.804g/t gold (600,000oz).
It has estimated indicated mineral resources of 74.8Mt at 1.350g/t gold (3.25Moz) and additional inferred mineral resources of 20.2Mt at 1.48g/t gold (960,000oz).
The project is currently in the permitting phase.
