Genesis buys more Leonora gold assets

Genesis Minerals has paid $53 million for two gold projects under a deal with Kin Mining, adding to the mid-tier goldminer’s consolidation of assets in Leonora.

The ASX-listed gold producer told the market it had entered into a binding asset sale agreement to acquire the Bruno-Lewis and Raeside gold projects in the region.

The open pit mineral resources for the two projects is 15.7 million tonnes at 1.2g/t for 610,000 ounces, valuing the deal at about $88 per resource ounce.

It adds to Genesis’ plan to become a more than 300,000 ounce per annum gold producer from the Leonora region through its spurt of recent acquisitions.

The two acquired projects are a part of Kin Mining’s larger project foothold dubbed the Cardinia gold project, of which it will retain some access rights to continue exploration.

Genesis will also have access to some of Kin’s retained tenure to facilitate operations.

Managing director Raleigh Finlayson said the Kin assets were prudent bolt-on acquisition for Genesis.

“With more than 12mt of open pit resources, Bruno-Lewis has the potential to supplement the eventual, sustainable re-start of our currently idled Laverton mill,” he said.

“Raeside offers supplementary high grade open pit ore to our Leonora mill just 10km away.

“We look forward to reporting maiden reserves for these new, value-add deposits and bolting them into our five-year outlook, to be unveiled in the new year.”

Kin Executive chair Rowan Johnston said it was a great deal for Kin that resets the bar.

“The cash will allow us to follow up on some exciting deeper targets, further define our existing resources and evaluate other growth options,” he said.

“This puts us in a unique position in the junior WA gold sector with the ability to unlock the value of our existing assets, aggressively target new discoveries and participate in future consolidation.

“We strongly believe in the Leonora consolidation and the work which Raleigh and his team are doing, we look forward to benefiting from this ongoing work through our holding in GMD, and we are exceptionally well placed to continue to ride the Leonora consolidation train and hopefully make further meaningful contributions to that process.”

It comes just a month after Gensis locked down its deal to acquire Dacian Gold and its acquisition of the historic Gwalia gold mine near Leonora that was finalised in June.

Sternship Advisers acted as corporate adviser and Gilbert + Tobin acted as legal adviser to Genesis for the deal.