Acquisition of a 1.5% NSR over a developing million-ounce gold project in Western Australia
Trident Royalties Plc (“Trident” or the “Company”) (AIM:TRR, FSX:5KV), the growth-focused mining royalty and streaming company, is pleased to announce that its wholly owned subsidiary TRR Services Australia Pty Ltd has entered into a binding agreement with a privately held Australian company (the “Seller”), to acquire an existing gold royalty (the “Royalty”) over tenement E28/1610, which hosts the entirety of the million ounce Lake Rebecca Gold Project (“Lake Rebecca”), currently owned and operated by ASX-listed Apollo Consolidated (“Apollo”) in Western Australia. The Royalty is being acquired for a total consideration of A$8,000,000 (approximately US$5,633,520) (the “Transaction”), comprised of A$7,000,000 in cash and A$1,000,000 in new ordinary shares in Trident.
Completion of the Transaction is conditional on approval by Australia’s Foreign Investment Review Board by 23 December 2020, or such later date as the parties may agree (“Completion”). If Completion does not occur by this date, then the Transaction will not proceed.
HIGHLIGHTS
A compelling gold project rapidly progressing towards development
· Lake Rebecca is a high-quality resource stage asset which shows potential for fast-track development within a world-class mining jurisdiction;
· Apollo (A$83 million Market Cap.) is well funded to progress development with A$21.5M cash (as of 8 July 2020), following a recent successful fundraise and divestment of a non-core asset;
· 1.5% Net Smelter Royalty over exploration licence E28/1610 which is currently pending conversion to a mining licence (M 28/400, application date 2 December 2019);
· The royalty covers the entirety of the Cleo, Duke, Duchess and Rebecca deposits, collectively referred to as the “Lake Rebecca Gold Project”;
· Apollo is aggressively pursuing the development of Lake Rebecca following the publication of a conservative open-pit shell constrained 1.035 million ounce JORC (2012) compliant maiden Mineral Resource Estimate¹ (“MRE”) in February 2020 (Indicated + Inferred resource of 27.1Mt @ 1.2g/t Au, with 0.5g/t Au cut-off & A$2,250/oz gold price).
· Significant Resource upgrade and expansion potential demonstrated by drill intersections subsequent to the MRE with mineralisation shown to be open at depth and along strike of the current modelled pit-shell.
A robust asset with proven geology in a prolific gold district
· Project located within the Eastern Goldfields Province of the Yilgarn Craton in Western Australia, upon the highly prospective Laverton Tectonic Zone (“LTZ”);
· Notable mines positioned upon the LTZ include the AngloGold Ashanti Sunrise Dam project (>4Moz Au); Gold Fields Ltd Granny Smith / Wallaby mines (>8Moz Au) and a number of the Saracen Minerals Carosue Dam Operations (“CDO”) deposits (>4.6Moz) (Moz Au reported Total Reserves & Resources 2019);
· Strategically located within 150km of Kalgoorlie, one of the most prolific gold mining centres in the world, with 47 active gold mines or advanced stage gold projects located within a 160km radius of Lake Rebecca (accounting for a total 63.15Moz Au reported 2020);
A transformative acquisition providing long-life precious metals exposure to Trident with significant upside potential
· Apollo is currently actively drilling the Lake Rebecca Gold Project. Highly encouraging post MRE and 2020 drill intersects include:
· At Rebecca deposit, infill drilling on Jennifer structure: 40m @ 5.06g/t Au, 19m @ 5.90g/t Au, 12m @ 6.73g/t Au and 51m @ 2.90g/t Au.
· Below current Rebecca Mineral Resource, 22m @ 3.44g/t Au 100m down-dip of the nearest intercept and 4.73m @ 19.10g/t Au 200m down dip of the nearest intercept.
· New discovery at Cleo 1km west of Rebecca including 38m @ 2.00g/t Au from 65m.
· Trident internal estimates indicate a long-life, substantial gold operation – providing a key cornerstone asset to underpin the precious metals’ allocation in Trident’s portfolio;
· Nick Castleden, the MD of Apollo, recently stated that “construction expected to commence in 18-24 months”;
· Trident expects the development of Lake Rebecca to benefit from its proximity to existing gold infrastructure, including Saracen who are in the process of upgrading their CDO processing plant to a nameplate capacity of 3.2Mtpa from the current 2.4Mtpa²; and Gold Fields underutilised Granny Smith plant of 3.5Mtpa capacity, currently operating on a 1.5Mtpa campaign milling basis³. Silverlake Resources 1.2Mtpa Randalls/Salt Creek Processing Facility (approximately 80km from Rebecca), Northern Star’s Kanowna Belle processing facility 2Mtpa (125km from Rebecca).
Adam Davidson, Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director of Trident commented:
“We are delighted to announce the acquisition of the Royalty over Lake Rebecca which will provide our shareholders with precious metals exposure from a significant and growing asset in the world’s top mining jurisdiction. Existing, uncapped gold royalties over attractive, substantial gold projects being developed by credible operators are incredibly scarce globally, let alone in a jurisdiction such as Australia which more traditionally utilises equity and debt markets for project finance. The Transaction reinforces the benefits of Trident’s global reach and network in sourcing attractive royalty opportunities.
“The Royalty will become a cornerstone asset for Trident and is anticipated to provide material and long-term revenue commencing in 2023 with significant upside to both scale and mine life. At this early stage, Trident believes that Lake Rebecca is on track to support a circa 100koz/a operation, located in a desirable jurisdiction being supported by gold prices at close to all-time highs. Acquiring attractive development stage royalties with a clear pathway to production has been proven to deliver value to shareholders, with many major and mid-tier royalty companies built on acquisitions such as this.
“More broadly, we are pleased to announce our fifth transaction in less than four months of being listed on AIM. We’re encouraged by the attractive opportunities available to Trident – lending credence to our strategy of identifying and acquiring royalties outside the scope of the currently listed royalty peers, which have a predominate focus on precious metals in North America. I see this acquisition as a major step forward in our progress toward becoming the pre-eminent, growth-focused diversified mining royalty and streaming company.”
