Emerald Resources is seeking to acquire unlisted company Bullseye Mining as it looks to expand its Australian gold portfolio.
Emerald will offer Bullseye shareholders one Emerald share for every 3.43 Bullseye shares as part of the offer, which values Bullseye at approximately $117 million or $0.30 per share.
This would see them acquire all issued Bullseye shares through an unanimously recommended takeover from the Bullseye board, in the situation no superior offer is made.
The acquisition would see Emerald add more than 1200 square kilometres of prospective gold licences to its portfolio, spanning three different projects in Western Australia.
Most notably, Bullseye’s North Laverton gold project covers 800 square kilometres, capturing the Dingo Range greenstone belt – one of the few under-explored greenstone belts remaining in Western Australia.
In December 2015, Bullseye defined an indicated and inferred mineral resource of 3.4 million tonnes at 2.51 grams per tonne for 276,000 ounces of gold at its Boundary, Stirling and Bungarra deposits within the North Laverton project.
“The Bullseye Mining acquisition aligns with our strategy of becoming a multi-gold project company,” Emerald chairman Simon Lee said.
“The combination will create a gold exploration and production company with a diversified asset base, strong balance sheet, solid and recurring revenue, with significant cost savings and operational synergies.”
Lee is buoyed by the current momentum at North Laverton, which positions the project strongly for future production.
“We see the strong probability of expanding these resources (at North Laverton) through the inclusion of results from the completed 35,000 metres of drilling and infill and extensional drilling campaign planned for 2022 as a step in the company’s aims to define, build and operate a second gold mine in the coming years.”
Bullseye chairman Peter J Burns offered his own endorsement for the proposal, highlighting Emerald’s mining expertise.
“The Emerald team has a long and impressive, demonstrated history of large-scale mine development across numerous jurisdictions, including Western Australia, along with a strong proven track record of delivering significant value for shareholders over many years,” he said.
Upon the successful completion of the takeover, Bullseye would become a wholly owned subsidiary of Emerald, with current Emerald and Bullseye shareholders owning approximately 82 per cent and 18 per cent (non-diluted basis) of the enlarged Emerald respectively.
A bidder’s statement has been dispatched, which is dated for December 13 and will close at 5pm Western Australia time on January 14.