Why is Santa Fe Minerals up 370% on Thursday?

Santa Fe Minerals (ASX:SFM), a relatively quiet ASX-listed explorer, has popped +367% in lunchtime trades, albeit on low volumes, on its acquisition of Turaco Gold’s (ASX:TCG) Eburnea project.

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Clearly, Turaco shareholders thought it was about time the company stopped Eburnea-ing through cash, the seller’s shares were up 4.3% to 48cps in early arvo trades.

But (off a low base,) it’s been Santa Fe that’s seen the dramatic rise of over 300%. So what’s the company picking up?

A project in the sovereign risk-laden jurisdiction that is West Africa’s Ivory Coast, or Côte d’Ivoire, a former French colony in the tumultuous region. Still, it’s not like Santa Fe becomes the only Australian company in West Africa.

The fact that the company has to raise $1.2M might sour sentiment for anybody buying in on Thursday, but Thursday’s price action takes the company well above that raising price of 5cps – Santa Fe shares were just shy of 15 cents each in early arvo trade.

Part of the deal hinges on the approval of an application for exploration permit Bouake North (PRA575), which will be 80% owned by Santa Fe with an option to extend to 90%. A second granted permit, Satama, is 100% owned.

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But it could be a tough sell until the company may or may not hit a gold intersection attractive enough to get tails wagging. So far, Santa Fe is dealing with geophys and historic aircore samples.

SFM last traded at 14.5cps.

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