SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA: Perseus Mining Limited (PRU), a gold producer and developer operating in West Africa, has announced that it has bought a 15.03% stake in OreCorp Limited (ORR), a mineral development company with a key project in Tanzania.

Perseus said that the share acquisition was a strategic investment that gave it exposure to an attractive African gold project, the Nyanzaga Gold Project, which has a reported ore reserve of 2.60 million ounces of gold.

Perseus also said that it was not in active talks with OreCorp and did not intend to make a competing offer to the current scheme that Silvercorp Metals Inc (SVM), a Canadian mining company, has proposed to OreCorp shareholders.

Silvercorp, which is the largest primary silver producer in China, has offered to acquire all of the issued and outstanding shares of OreCorp for A$0.70 per share, valuing OreCorp at approximately A$211 million. Silvercorp has revised its offer on 23 November 2023, after initially announcing it on 7 August 2023.

However, Perseus said that it would vote against the Silvercorp scheme at the OreCorp scheme meeting, which is scheduled for 8 December 2023. Perseus also said that it would welcome the opportunity to engage with OreCorp to determine an optimal and expedited pathway forward for the development of the Nyanzaga Gold Project.

Perseus said that it had the ability, should the opportunity arise, to deploy its engineering, development and operating expertise and balance sheet to contribute to the successful development and operation of the project.

Perseus’s Executive Chairman Jeff Quartermaine said: “Perseus continues to assess and, where considered commercially appropriate, deploy its reserves of cash, bullion and undrawn debt facilities totalling approximately A$155.9 million, to pursue opportunities that complement its existing asset portfolio and our organic growth programme.

Acquiring the 15.03% interest in OreCorp via this share acquisition is a strategic investment for Perseus. It provides an investment in an attractive African gold project located in a jurisdiction that has a long and successful history of gold mining.”

Perseus said that it would provide further details of the share acquisition in the Form 603 Notice of Initial Substantial Holder to be lodged on the ASX platform.

Perseus currently operates two gold mines, Edikan in Ghana and Sissingué in Côte d’Ivoire, and is developing its third operation, Yaouré, also in Côte d’Ivoire. OreCorp’s Nyanzaga Gold Project is located in northwest Tanzania, within the Lake Victoria Goldfields, and is one of the largest undeveloped gold projects in Africa.

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