Greatland Gold shares fell 5.9% to 10.2p in early morning trading on Friday, after the mining company reported it had retained 30% ownership of the Haverion project following Newcrest’s decision to not buy an additional 5% interest in the joint-venture at the agreed price of $60 million.
Greatland Gold said it believed the decision would deliver “substantial” medium to long term value to the firm.
The company previously offered Newcrest a 5% stake for $85 million, which would have apparently produced a “financially compelling” outcome for Greatland shareholders.
The outcome reportedly concludes Newcrest’s joint-venture process for the 5% stake option.
“We are simply delighted that Greatland will retain its 30% interest in Havieron. This was the best possible outcome for the Company and its shareholders which delivers substantial medium to long term value,” said Greatland Gold managing director Shaun Day.
“Greatland had previously offered Newcrest significantly higher value to acquire a 5% stake from Newcrest which, in the opinion of the directors, still presented a financially compelling outcome to Greatland shareholders. Accordingly, today’s outcome is tremendous, particularly in the context of the ongoing potential of Havieron.”
“This outcome also concludes the JV process for Newcrest’s 5% option and aligns both Joint Venture parties to focus on developing Havieron and work towards first production without the distraction of the process. We respect the Newcrest decision, which as a global major with over 35-years of experience in the Paterson, is an excellent joint venture partner and provides Havieron the benefit of leveraging the existing infrastructure just down the road at Telfer.”
Newcrest updated mineral resource
Newcrest also released an updated mineral resource for Haverion, within 1% of the total gold metal content and within 3% total copper metal content of Greatland’s previously updated mineral resource.
“We welcome Newcrest’s update to the Havieron JORC resource today, which delivers around a 51% increase on their previous update. This update, with a December 2021 drill cut-off, is within around 1% for total gold metal content of Greatland’s independent update released on 3 March 2022,” said Day.
“This validation is a great credit to the quality of our technical team and their ability to deliver within compressed timeframes.”
Meanwhile, Greatland Gold added its drill programme at Haverion was “progressing at pace” with up to seven drill rigs in operation, as it continues to expand high grade extensions to the mineralisation in the Eastern Breccia, South East Crescent Zone and Northern Breccia.
