Metminco Limited has announced it has entered into a binding agreement to acquire 100% of shares of Sunshine Metals Ltd. Sunshine Metals holds 80% of the Jejevo Nickel Project on Santa Isabel Island and an 80% interest in an early stage bauxite prospect — the Tausere bauxite Project, on the Choiseul Island, which are located at different parts of the Solomon Islands.
MNC proposes to acquire all existing share capital in Sunshine Minerals and complete an accompanying capital raising to advance MNC’s existing mining projects.
Executive Chairperson Kevin Wilson commented: “The acquisition of the Jejevo Nickel Project, gives Metminco exposure to nickel at a time when rising battery manufacture is expected to accelerate demand for the metal.
“We will commence advancing Jejevo as soon as the acquisition completes. Together with our Quinchia Gold Project we now have two advanced exploration projects that we believe offer near term development potential.”
The below map shows Sunshine Minerals’ two Solomon Islands projects:
Sunshine Minerals Ltd, is a private company engaged in exploration and development in the Solomon Islands. Exploration work at the Tausere bauxite project is at a preliminary stage, but, the project has a Land user agreement in place and a granted Prospecting Licence. Sunshine is also benefitted from some early bauxite exploration work undertaken by Mitsui in the 1970s. Sunshine has defined a 288Mt exploration target over the 510km2 tenement. Historic sampling by Mitsui confirms the presence of high-quality bauxite in the area. Sunshine needs to define drill targets to support a preliminary resource estimate.
The company will conduct due diligence study at Sunshine Minerals’ projects. To fund its new nickel-bauxite projects via the proposed acquisition of Sunshine Minerals, MNC is seeking to raise $3 million, with Patersons Securities Limited as lead manager to the placement. MNC intends that the Placement funds will be settled on Tuesday 25 September 2018. Along with being used for the development of MNC’s Quinchia Gold Project in Colombia and Jejevo Nickel Project in Solomon Islands, the fund will also be used to evaluate the Tausere Bauxite Project and for general working capital. Considering the growing demand for quality bauxite resources and a proximity to China, Tausere provides a convenient entry point to a potentially large-scale bauxite project.
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