Cerrado Gold to acquire Ascendant Resources
Cerrado Gold (TSX.V: CERT][OTCQX: CRDOF) announced Monday it will acquire all the issued and outstanding shares of Ascendant Resources (TSX: ASND) it does not already own. The deal gives Cerrado an 80% interest in the Lagoa Salgada project in Portugal. Under the terms, Ascendant shareholders would receive one common share of Cerrado for every 7.8 common shares of Ascendant. On closing, Ascendant shareholders would own approximately 21% of the Cerrado shares outstanding. Cerrado will issue 27.7 million shares for the transaction and will have approximately 131.3 million issued and outstanding shares, it said. Lagoa Salgada is a well advanced, long-life, low cost polymetallic VMS project, with gold and silver accounting for approximately 34% of NSR, located in the prolific Iberian Pyrite Belt, Cerrado said. In 2023, Ascendant completed an 43-101 compliant feasibility study on Lagoa Salgada which outlined a project with an after-tax NPV of $147 million and IRR of 39% generating approximately C$75M per annum in free cash flow over the first 5 years of operations. A new optimized feasibility study is anticipated to be completed by late summer. “The acquisition of Lagoa Salgada is a tremendous opportunity for Cerrado to add a world class, low cost asset with strong cash flow potential and create significant value as well as support our longer-term development plans without compromising our financial strength and current operations,” CEO Mark Brennan said in a news release. “The existing value and significant near-term exploration potential at Lagoa Salgada is well understood by management,” Brennan said. Lagoa Salgada has been awarded “Project of National Interest” status from the Government of Portugal and approval of the recently submitted Environmental Impact Assessment is expected in the coming months. Ascendant is currently advancing an optimized feasibility study expected to further improve the project economics and be in a position to undertake a construction decision by year end, the company said. Cerrado Gold shares were down 10% in Toronto late afternoon trading Monday, while Ascendant Resources’ shares were down 8%. The companies’ market caps are C$45 million and C$10.3 million, respectively. Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Mining.com
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