PERSEUS Mining declared its cash offer for OreCorp of A$0.575 per share final and unconditional on Monday after accumulating a stake of 51.03% in the gold development company.
OreCorp, listed on the ASX, owns the Nyanzaga Gold Project in Tanzania. The project has reported probable ore reserves of some 40.08 million tons grading at 2.02 grams per tons for 2.60 million ounces of gold.
“We are pleased with the positive response from OreCorp Shareholders and to be able to declare the Offer unconditional and best and final,” said Jeff Quartermaine, CEO of Perseus Mining in a statement.
“Senior executives from Perseus are scheduled to visit Tanzania in the very near future to continue the process of building relationships in country with key government and industry stakeholders as well as existing employees and associates of OreCorp and to prepare the way for the commencement of the development of the Nyanzaga Gold Project,” he said.
Perseus will also appoint representatives to the OreCorp board and management team that will include Jeff Quartermaine (who will be the firm’s chairman) and Lee-Anne de Bruin, OreCorp’s proposed CEO and MD.
Perseus also said it had accelerated the payment terms for its offer such as that all OreCorp shareholders who have already accepted the offer will be paid in seven business days.
In November, Perseus bought a 19.9% stake in OreCorp which put the kibosh on an earlier takeover offer by Silvercorp Mining.
Once the OreCorp deal is complete, Perseus will have three operating mines producing gold at a rate of over 535,000 ounces per year in the 2023 financial year, as well as two projects in development.
Perseus’s growth trajectory has been impressive under Quartermaine, but his first real setback occurred in 2022 when the firm deferred an investment decision on the Meyas Sand Gold Project in Sudan following the outbreak of hostilities in the country.
However, speaking to Bloomberg News last week Quartermaine said Meyas Sands gold project was “not lost to our company by any stretch of the imagination”.
“We’re going to develop this one, that’s the plan,” he added.
