PriceSensitive

White Cliff Minerals (ASX:WCN) to acquire NZ mining assets

Mining
ASX:WCN      MCAP $24.36M
24 March 2021 13:00 (AEST)

White Cliff Minerals (WCN) has signed a binding term sheet for the acquisition of New Zealand-based Midway Resources.

Midway Resources is a privately owned company, which White Cliff intends to acquire 100 per cent of from Grand Port Resources. Through the proposed acquisition, the company would also gain access to three mining projects in New Zealand.

Midway Resources holds the Muirs, Mareburn, and Longwood Range projects, which are highly prospective for gold, copper and platinum group elements (PGE). Currently, Midway has one granted Minerals Exploration Permit (MEP) for Mareburn, and three pending MEP’s across the Muirs and Longwood Range projects.

White Cliff will pay Grant Port Resources an aggregate total of approximately $5 million in consideration for purchasing all issued capital in Midway Resources. Up to $100,000 of this consideration will be for costs incurred in developing Midway’s projects.

The remainder will consist of a mixture of upfront and performance-based shares. $2.4 million of this will be ordinary fully paid consideration shares in White Cliff Minerals, issued at 2.5 cents each.

Grand Port will receive one option for every three consideration shares, which will be exercisable at 3.75 cents each within three years of the acquisition’s completion.

The rest entails $2.5 million in performance-based consideration, made up of $500,000 in Class A Performance Rights, $500,000 in Class B Performance Rights, $500,000 in Class C Performance Rights, and $1 million in Class D Performance Rights. 

White Cliff’s acquisition of Midway Resources from Grand Port Resources is subject to shareholder approval, due diligence, no breach of warranties, and no material adverse events. The company will seek shareholder approval for the transaction at a general meeting, which is likely to take place in mid-May.

By modern exploration standards and methods, Midway’s three projects are considered to be underexplored. After the acquisition is completed, White Cliff will undertake a maiden JORC-compliant mineral resource estimate at the Muirs project, and immediately start first-pass drilling at Muirs and Mareburn.

White Cliff also intends to appoint New Zealand businessman, Sean Fitzpatrick, as a strategic advisor to the company once the acquisition is concluded. 

The company’s Non-Executive Chairman, Michael Soucik, believes that the proposed acquisition of Midway Resources is complementary to the company’s existing portfolio.

“The assets hold a mixture of historical results and exploration upside,” he said.

“The company will endeavour to define a maiden JORC resource at the Muirs project from the historical results and undertake a drilling program at Mareburn and Longwood projects where exploration targets have been identified,” he added.

White Cliff Minerals is up 10.53 per cent, trading at 2.1 cents per share at 10:49 am AEDT.

Related News