Montage Gold has announced acquisition of the Mankono project in Côte d’Ivoire. The Canada-based firm bought the project from subsidiaries of Barrick Gold and Endeavour Mining for purchase of C$30m.
The Mankono joint venture was as formed in 2017, and exploration has been managed by Barrick since that time. Montage Gold initially inked a deal with the subsidiaries under which granted the firm 100% indirect interest in the Mankono Sissédougou.
Deal made
Of the C$30m ($24m), pay C$14.5m ($11.5m) was issued in cash and 22,142,857 Montage common shares, in addition to a 2% NSR royalty. This acquisition is expected to expand the Canadian precious metals explorer and developer’s Koné gold project in the West African country.
The JV project consists of three properties – Sissédougou, Gbongogo and Sisséplé – that lie within the perimeter of the company’s Koné gold project (KGP). Taken together with Montage’s existing land holdings, they would form a contiguous block of 1,295 km2 in exploration permits, and a further 964 km2 in exploration permit applications, for a total of 2,259 km2.
Montage CEO Rick Clark said: “With the addition of Mankono, our consolidated land position grows to more than 2,250km² over one of the most prolific gold belts in West Africa at the centre of which is our Koné deposit.
“Drilling has started on our newly acquired ground looking to add higher-grade resources to the Koné development plan. Based on our evaluation of the historic data from Mankono we believe that, in addition to the inferred mineral resource at Gbongogo, the rest of the Mankono land package has the real potential for additional discoveries of 0.8Moz to 1.2Moz at similar grades (between 1.5g/t-2.5g/t Au).”