PAIV:Goldplat agrees final payment for 50% holding in Kilimapesa Gold Ltd for reduced sum
AIM-listed Goldplat (LON:GDP) announced today it had agreed a final payment for a 50 percent stake in Kilimapesa Gold Ltd - the holding company for the firm's wholly owned Kilimapesa project in Kenya.
The final one - off payment of US$800,000 is to its former JV partner International Gold Exploration IGE AB for the stake equates to a reduction of US$700,000 to the reported acquisition consideration to US$2,000,000, said Goldplat.
CEO Demetri Manolis said today: "This is excellent news for shareholders and represents a significant reduction of the originally agreed consideration.
"The development of the Kilimapesa gold project is part of the company's strategy of building and advancing a portfolio of brownfield gold projects in known mineralised zones with production history.
"The company has additional projects that are being advanced in Ghana and Burkina Faso which it believes through exploration and development will lead to a significant increase in Goldplat's overall resource base.
"Updates on these developments are expected in the near term, as well as from the gold recovery operations in South Africa and Ghana which continue to perform strongly; and we look forward to updating shareholders with our progress in realising Goldplat's inherent value."
Last month, the company announced that it would be starting an exploration programme at its Kilimapesa gold mine in Kenya this month with the aim of increasing the JORC compliant resource base to more than 500,000 ounces of gold.
In an operational update, the group revealed that its South African and Ghanaian recovery plants are performing solidly and generating significant revenues. At Kilimapesa, Goldplat has identified four target areas, two of which will be tested in a phase one 29 hole diamond drilling programme.
It aims to increase the resource here from at present 1.65 million tonnes at 2.44 grammes per tonne gold for 129,000 oz of gold at a cut-off grade of 1 g/t for all categories, to in excess of 500,000 oz. the group plans to publish an updated JORC resource by the end of 2011.
The wholly-owned Kilimapesa mine is to be developed into a small profitable gold mine with an initial target of producing approximately 5,000oz Au per annum within 12 months of being granted its mining licence.
