Red 5 and Silver Lake will merge to create a 445,000 ounce per annum gold player. But what will that look like?
The merger creates a leading mid-tier gold miner, putting the company on par with the likes of Regis Resources in terms of production, and consolidating a number of prospective projects.
King of the Hills
Red 5’s King of the Hills (KOTH) operations near Leonora in Western Australia is the company’s flagship asset. Comprised of the KOTH and Darlot mines, KOTH operations produced 163,000 ounces of gold in 2023 at an all-in sustaining cost (AISC) of $1837 per ounce.
The operation has a 6.2-million-ounce resource and a 2.6-million-ounce reserve.
Red 5 has set guidance for 2024 at 195,000-215,000 ounces of gold as development continues.
Deflector
One of Silver Lake’s operations, the Deflector gold-copper mine has been called one of the highest grade and lowest cost gold operations in WA.
Deflector has resources of 1.1 million ounces of gold and 14,400 tonnes of copper, and reserves of 0.3 million ounces and 2800 tonnes respectively.
Silver Lake produced 127,000 ounces of gold in 2023 at an AISC of $1497 per ounce. The miner also produced 1483 tonnes of copper.
Mt Monger
Silver Lake’s Mt Monger operations comprises three mines and 3.5 million ounces in gold resources.
The site has well-established infrastructure with a 1.3 million tonne per annum processing mill.
Operations in 2023 produced 96,000 ounces of gold at an AISC of $2104 per ounce, with Red 5 and Silver Lake confident that the site has a long life of mine ahead of it.
Sugar Zone
Sugar Zone is an underground mine in its infancy located near Ontario, Canada. It is a fully permitted operation with mine, services and access infrastructure all established.
Silver Lake has so far defined a 1.5-million-ounce resource and a 0.5-million-ounce reserve at Sugar Zone.
A 93,000m drill program is underway for 2024 to further unlock the project’s resources.
As part of the merger, Red 5 will acquire all shares in Silver Lake, with Red 5 shareholders owning 51.7 per cent of the merged entity and Silver Lake shareholders owning the remaining 48.3 per cent.
Red 5’s current chair Russell Clark will retain his position, with Silver Lake’s current managing director Luke Tonkin being appointed to the position of chief executive officer and managing director of the merged company.
The combined company’s new board of directors will comprise four directors from each of Red 5 and Silver Lake’s boards.
The merger is expected to be implemented by June.
Subscribe to Australian Resources & Investment and receive the latest news on commodity prices, resource developments, executive movements and more.