Westgold buys Silver Lake’s Murchison assets

PERTH (miningweekly.com) – ASX-listed gold miner Silver Lake Resources has reached an agreement with fellow-listed Westgold Resources to divest of its Murchison assets, in Western Australia, for A$10-million.

The sale includes the Tuckabianna gold processing facility and underlying mining tenure, as well as the company’s 40% joint venture (JV) interest in the Cue project, which will dilute to a 20% interest in the first quarter of 2018.

The purchase price for the Tuckabianna asset is A$6-million along with 1.25-million fully paid ordinary shares in Westgold, with completion of this part of the transaction expected by the end of June this year.

The sale and purchase of the JV interest will be subject to JV partner Musgrave Minerals not exercising its pre-emptive right to purchase Silver Lake’s interest on equivalent terms.

Musgrave has 30 days in which to exercise this right, with Westgold offering a cash consideration of A$1.5-million. Completion of this part of the transaction is scheduled for early August.

Westgold MD Peter Cook on Friday said that the acquisition provided a further 1.2-million-tonne-a-year plant capacity and significant optionality for growth in the southern part of the company’s Central Murchison gold project.

“We will now turn our hand to further optimising the development strategy using these newly acquired assets and resources.”

The Central Murchison project has a two-million-tonne-a-year carbon-in-leach gold processing plant and associated infrastructure, and hosts a measured and indicated and inferred resource of 108.7-million tonnes at 2.21 g/t gold for some 7.7-million ounces, and a proven and probable reserve of 22.8-million tonnes at 2.63 g/t gold for 1.9-million ounces.