Cora Gold Ltd has signed a new US$25 million mandate and term sheet with investment firm, Lionhead Capital Advisors Proprietary Ltd, to develop the Sanankoro gold project in southern Mali.
MINE ECONOMICS
The agreement is conditional on, among other matters, the completion of a definitive feasibility study before the end of June 2022.
The term sheet, which comprises $12.5m equity financing and $12.5m convertible financing, replaces one previously agreed in June 2020 with Lionhead for $21m.
Cora chief executive Bert Monro said the new term sheet was a “fantastic demonstration” of Lionhead’s support and further de-risked the Sanankoro gold project.
“With an increased focus on a CIL processing route to enable the development of a larger and longer life gold mine with better economics, there is an expectation of a larger capex than the January 2020 heap leach scoping study.
“In light of this, the increased equity and convertible commitment in this term sheet gives great support to the company and significantly de-risks future project financing as we move towards an updated resource estimate and DFS completion.”
LIONHEAD
Lionhead is acting as lead investor and arranger on behalf of a consortium of investors including the founders of LionOre Mining International Ltd (bought by Norilsk Nickel for $6.3bn in 2007), and the initial investors in Mantra Resources Ltd (bought by ROSATOM for AU$1.2bn in 2010).
Paul Quirk, a non-executive director of Cora, is a founding partner and director of Lionhead.
The Quirk family are potential beneficiaries of trusts that own 34.55% of Cora through Brookstone Business Inc and Key Ventures Holding Ltd.