Orea has agreed to make a C$100m ($75m) payment to Nord Gold, subject to the lifting of all sanctions against Nordgold and its shareholders in certain jurisdictions, including Canada, the US, France, the UK and the EU
Orea, Nord Gold to amend share purchase agreement. (Credit: Alex Banner from Pixabay)
Canada-based Orea Mining and Russia’s Nord Gold have mutually terminated their earlier deal, under which Orea would acquire a 55.01% interest in Nord Gold’s Montagne d’Or gold project.
The two companies have decided to amend the terms of their share purchase agreement.
Under the amended agreement, Orea will make a C$100m ($75m) payment, subject to the lifting of all sanctions against Nordgold and its shareholders in certain jurisdictions.
The jurisdictions include Canada, the US, France, the UK and the EU.
Orea will no longer make the payments if sanctions are still in effect in the first three years from receipt of all permits to operate the Montagne d’Or gold mine and seven years from closing.
Orea Mining, in a statement, said: “The applicable sanctions authorities have been provided with a copy of the Amended Agreement for review.
“The Amended Agreement has not been executed by Orea nor by Nordgold and will not be signed without the authorization of applicable sanctions authorities.
“Orea is unable to provide guidance on when it might receive a reply from applicable sanctions authorities; shareholders will be kept informed.”
Montagne d’Or is an open-pit gold mine development project located in French Guiana, an overseas region northwest of France.
The French mine hosts Measured Mineral Resources of 10.3Mt at 1.804g/t gold (600,000oz), and Indicated Mineral Resources of 74.8Mt at 1.350g/t gold (3.25Moz).
It also hosts additional Inferred Mineral Resources of 20.2Mt at 1.48g/t gold (960,000oz).
The Mineral Reserves have been defined with Proven Mineral Reserves of 8.25Mt at 1.99g/t gold (530,000oz) and Probable Mineral Reserves of 45.87Mt at 1.50g/t gold (2.2Moz).
The Proven and Probable Mineral Reserves were estimated using a gold price of $1,200 per ounce at varied cut-off grades from 0.552 to 0.665g/t gold.
Orea said that the Montagne d’Or ore can be readily processed using unit operations considered standard to the industry, to recover the contained gold and silver values.
Furthermore, the Canadian mining company is awaiting a decision by the Supreme Court of France, with respect to the renewal of mining titles related to Montagne d’Or deposit.