Chalice on hunt with $100m war chest
Kate Emery, The West Australian February 7, 2012, 7:51 am
<
http://l.yimg.com/fv/xp/wan/20120207/13/2429048749.jpg> Chalice on hunt
with $100m war chest
Chalice on hunt with $100m war chest
Chalice Gold Mines has given itself until the end of the year to use a $100
million war chest to acquire a new project. It has Africa, South America and
Australia on its radar.
Chairman Tim Goyder said Chalice, which is in the process of selling its
stake in the Zara Eritrean gold project to China's SFECO, hoped to have the
proceeds in the bank by May and was already on the lookout for likely
targets.
"I've got a lot of meetings lined up," Mr Goyder told WestBusiness.
Mr Goyder said Chalice's experience lay in Africa and gold but it was
keeping an open mind. He did not rule out picking up another project in
Eritrea, where Chalice has exploration assets.
"We're not looking at grassroots projects," he said. "We want (a project)
close to production or that has some good hits in it. We think there are
still opportunities around."
The Chinese have until mid-March to complete due diligence on Zara and
Chalice is expected to take the deal to shareholders in May. Mr Goyder said
the company would make an acquisition this year.
Consolidation among Africa's gold juniors has been talked about ad nauseam
but has yet to materialised on a significant scale.
Most of the bigger African deals have involved other commodities, such as
Barrick and Equinox Minerals (copper), Exxaro Resources and African Iron
(iron ore) and China Guangdong Nuclear Power Corp and Extract Resources
(uranium).
BDO corporate finance partner Sherif Andrawes said he expected to see an
increasing number of partnerships based around the need for funding,
particularly in the gold sector.
"My feeling is it's going to be a year of consolidation," he said.
Chalice managing director Doug Jones will address the Mining Indaba
conference in Cape Town today.
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Received on Tue Feb 07 2012 - 12:17:23 EST
