Asante Gold Corp. has announced the acceptance of subscriptions aggregating C$101.98 million in private placement of common shares of the Company at a price of C$1.75 per common share, with funds expected to be used for working capital.
This indicates an improvement in the previous update of the total subscription, two weeks ago, and thus, shows increased interest in the shares. Emiral Resources which already had 19.6 per cent at the time of announcing the sale of the common shares expressed interest in increasing its shares.
So far, subscribers are the Ghana Minerals Income and Investment Fund (MIIF) that subscribed for 14,514,286 common shares and Emiral Resources Limited that subscribed for an additional 12,249,208 shares, maintaining its cornerstone investment in the Company.
MIIF received mineral resource royalties from mineral production in Ghana. MIIF has been mandated by the Ghanaian government to build a world class minerals industry and to serve as a strategic lever for the economic transformation of Ghana. MIIF has reported GHS1.9 billion under management.
The subscription by Emiral under the offering combined with its current shareholdings will represent at closing a 19.87 per cent ownership stake in the Company. Emiral is considered a ‘related party’ of the Company and, accordingly, its subscription constitutes a ‘related party transaction’ within the meaning of Multilateral Instrument 61-101– Protection of Minority Security Holders in Special Transactions (MI 61-101).
Emiral Subscription Exempt
Accordingly, the Emiral subscription is exempt from the minority approval requirement of Section 5.6 and the formal valuation requirement of Section 5.4 of MI 61-101 as neither the fair market value of the Emiral subscription, nor the fair market value of the consideration for the Emiral subscription, has exceeded 25 per cent of the Company’s market capitalization.
The second US$30 million payment to Resolute Mining Limited for the Bibiani Mine acquisition has been completed, with the final payment of US$30 million payable in six months. The balance of the proceeds from the Offering will be used for Bibiani Mine development and working capital purposes.
“The Company will also pay certain finders’ fees in connection with the Offering in accordance with the rules of the Canadian Securities Exchange. All securities issued will be subject to a four month and one day hold period under Canadian securities legislation.”
Douglas MacQuarrie, CEO & President
The Company also announced that it has granted 7,039,340 incentive stock options at C$1.75 per share for terms of two and five years to directors, consultants and employees, as well as 1,515,760 Restricted Share Units, and 4,285,900 Deferred Share Units subject to the provisions of the Company’s Equity Incentive Plan.
The current mineral resource estimate for Bibiani, as reported in the fourth quarter of 2021 is measured and indicated 20.1 million tones at 2.71 grams of gold per tonne for 1.81 million tonnes of gold. This also includes an inferred 8.41 million tonnes of 2.78 grams of gold per tonne for 0.75Moz of gold.
Recall that Asante Gold, shortly after acquiring Bibiani gold mine from Resolute Mining recorded significant gold intercepts from its ongoing near mine exploration drill program launched last year, indicating that the mine was underexplored and has high resource potential.
