28 May 2015
Goldcrest Resources plc
("Goldcrest" or the "Company")
Acquisition of
Akoko Gold Project
Goldcrest Resources plc, the gold exploration company with
interests in prospective projects in northern Ghana, is pleased to announce that it has
agreed terms to conditionally acquire the Akoko Project in south
east Ghana from Castle Minerals
Ltd, an ASX-listed gold exploration company (“Acquisition”).
Highlights
- Akoko Project has a JORC-compliant resource approximately 5km
east of Endeavour Mining’s Nzema Mine in south east Ghana
- Significant potential to expand resource at Akoko North and
Akoko South deposits
- Majority of resource at Akoko North comprises shallow,
free-milling oxide ore with high metallurgical recoveries
- Approximately A$4m has been spent
on the project to-date by Castle
Background
Castle Minerals Limited (“Castle”) is an ASX-listed gold
exploration company focused on Ghana with licences covering more than
11,000km². Castle has been active in Ghana since 2006 and has discovered seven
greenfield gold deposits across its licences.
The Akoko Project consists of one prospecting licence (“Akoko
Licence”) in the south east of Ghana on the prolific Ashanti belt. Work
carried out by Castle on the Akoko Licence discovered two separate
mineralized areas called Akoko North and Akoko South. The Akoko Licence is adjacent
to and approximately 5km east of Endeavour Mining’s Nzema gold mine
and 30km south of Gold Fields’ Tarkwa gold mine. As a
greenfield project, Castle made a virgin discovery when they
discovered mineralisation in the licence area.
Mineral Resource
An indicated and inferred resource of 92,800ozs @ 1.9 g/t Au has
been defined on the Akoko North and South deposits at a 0.8 g/t
cut-off. At Akoko North a number of higher-grade
intersections such as 11m @ 6.65g/t Au, 21m @ 3.01 g/t Au and 18m @
3.02 g/t Au were encountered. Mineralisation remains open
along strike and at depth at both Akoko North and Akoko South, where the soil anomaly continues
into Endeavour Mining’s licence.
There are also a number of gold-in-soil geochemical anomalies
yet to be tested across the Akoko Licence.
Frederick Bell, Managing
Director, commented: “This acquisition allows Goldcrest to
advance the Akoko project through the next phase of exploration and
gives the Company a defined resource in a prolific and historical
mining region. The project comes with significant exploration
data and results to date have been very encouraging, highlighting
the potential to expand the resource and follow-up on additional
anomalies in the licence.”
Terms of the Acquisition
The Acquisition is conditional on (i) the transfer of the Akoko
Licence to Goldcrest and the approval of the relevant regulatory
authorities in Ghana; (ii)
admission of Goldcrest’s ordinary shares to trading on the AIM
Market of the London Stock Exchange (“Admission”) within twelve
months of the date of the Acquisition agreement, being 27 May 2015, unless waived or extended at the
sole discretion of Castle; and (iii) completion of certain
milestone payments, details of which are set out below.
Under the terms of the Acquisition agreement between Goldcrest
and Castle, the following payments, totalling US$282,500 in cash and US$200,000 in ordinary shares in the Company, are
due to Castle:
- an initial payment of US$7,500 in
cash within 7 days of the date of the Acquisition agreement;
- US$75,000 in cash upon completion
of the transfer of the Akoko Licence to Goldcrest from Topago
Mining Limited, Castle’s wholly-owned subsidiary;
- US$100,000 cash and US$100,000 in shares thirty days following
Admission. The issue price of the shares will be calculated by
reference to the three month volume weighted average price of
Goldcrest’s ordinary shares traded on ISDX immediately prior to
Admission;
- US$100,000 in shares six months
following Admission. The issue price of the shares will be
calculated at the three month volume weighted average price of
Goldcrest shares traded on AIM immediately prior to the six month
anniversary of Admission; and
- a final fixed payment of $100,000
in cash twenty months following Admission.
Additional payments in cash or equity (at Goldcrest’s
discretion) shall fall due dependent on future exploration success.
The first such additional payment of US$500,000 would fall due on definition of a
resource totalling 0.5Moz; further payments of US$500,000 would fall due for each additional
0.5Moz resource defined thereafter up to a total of 2Moz.
The Company has more than sufficient cash resources to meet
payments (i) and (ii) as they fall due and would seek to raise
additional funds at the time of Admission to make payments (iii)
and (v).
The Directors of the Issuer accept responsibility for this
announcement.
--ENDS--
ENQUIRIES:
Goldcrest Resources plc
Frederick Bell, Managing
Director Tel:
07554 872 794
frederick@goldcrestresourcesplc.com
Cairn Financial Advisers LLP
Avi Robinson/Jo
Turner Tel:
020 7148 7900