Australia’s Resolute Mining (LSE: RSG; ASX: RSG) has agreed to sell its Bibiani gold mine in Ghana to China’s Chifeng Jilong Gold Mining for US$105 million in cash.
The Western Australia-based miner has received a US$5 million deposit upfront, with the remainder expected upon completion of the transaction, which is expected in March 2021.
Resolute Mining acquired Bibiani in 2004, but placed it on care and maintenance shortly after to allow exploration activities to further develop the asset into a large-scale operation.
The company changed tune in January 2020, launching a review of the mine to determine whether to keep it or sell it to a company “in better place” to keep the gold mine running.
Chifeng noted that it would immediately invest the required capital and provide the necessary expertise to recommission Bibiani as an operating gold mine in the shortest possible timeframe.
“I am confident that Resolute’s positive legacy in Ghana, and the interests of all stakeholders in Bibiani, will be protected and enhanced under Chifeng’s ownership,” Resolute’s interim CEO, Stuart Gale, said in a news release.
Resolute sold in January its Ravenswood gold mine in Queensland — the only Australian asset it had — to private equity firm EMR Capital Management. The US$207 million-deal left the company with three mines in Africa — Syama, in Mali; Mako, in Senegal; and Bibiani.
Bibiani’s sale would reduce Resolute’s portfolio to only two assets and is subject to a number of conditions. Those include the approval of the Australian Foreign Investment Review Board as well as Chinese and Ghanaian government authorizations.
This article first appeared in MINING.com, part of Glacier Resource Innovation Group.
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