Metals Exploration plc signs deal to acquire gold ore processing plant

LONDON: Metals Exploration plc (AIM: MTL), a gold production, exploration, and development company with assets in the Philippines and Nicaragua, announced an agreement with Almaden Minerals Ltd. to purchase a gold ore processing and concentrating plant.

The plant, currently located in Nome, Alaska, includes crushers, conveyors, a grinding ball mill, Sepro Falcon gravity circuit, carbon in leach (CIL) circuit, elution and smelting equipment, and laboratory. The purchase price is set at $9.7 million, to be paid from existing cash resources and cashflow generation.

The transaction is subject to conditions, including a final inspection by the company, and is expected to close around August 31, 2025. Payments will be made in installments: $2 million within 14 days of the agreement’s execution, $3 million upon transport scheduling verification (expected around March 31, 2025), $2 million after the final inspection (expected around April 30, 2025), and $2.7 million when the plant is prepared for shipment (expected around August 31, 2025).

Weather permitting, dismantling, packing, and freight forwarding of the plant will begin in early May 2025, with a target transit date before the end of August 2025. Metals Exploration has chartered a private vessel to ensure the sea freight delivery matches their construction schedule.

The plant will be reassembled at the La India project in Nicaragua, saving significant construction time.

CEO Darren Bowden commented, “The plant enables us to fast track the La India project, saving considerable development time and costs. This purchase reaffirms our goal to commence production at La India in Q4 2026.”

Bowden added, “This purchase demonstrates our commitment to having the La India project in operation on a fast-track schedule, ensuring Metals Exploration maintains and improves its current positive cash flows in the short term.”