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Chalice leaves investors on hold
Peter Klinger, Business Editor | View Archive April 20, 2012, 10:15 am



Chalice Gold Mines shareholders are nervously awaiting news on the sale of its flagship asset to China’s SFECO Group for $US100 million ($96.9 million).

Chalice placed its shares in a trading halt yesterday pending an announcement about the proposed sale of its 60 per cent stake in the Zara gold project in Eritrea to the Chinese group.

Shares in the Perth explorer fell 4 per cent to 23.5¢ on light volumes before the halt was called.

There has been no update on the sale since Chalice announced on Friday that SFECO had completed its due diligence

Under the terms of the sale announced at the end of last year, SFECO was to pay Chalice $US80 million for the Koka deposit and up to $US20 million for other nearby Zara properties.

Chalice had cited financing difficulties amid tightened United Nations sanctions against Eritrea as a reason selling out.

Boss Tim Goyder has got his shareholders’ hopes up by already disclosing he hoped to have the Zara cash in the bank by May while the search was under way for potential acquisitions.

But in this game, no news is bad news and shareholders will be hoping SFECO’s due diligence did not throw up a game breaker.

Meanwhile, investors have applauded Centaurus Metals’ results from an in-fill drilling campaign at its Jambreiro iron ore project in Brazil.

The drilling produced hits ranging from 32 per cent iron to almost 40 per cent and prompted Centaurus to flag a resource upgrade from Jambreiro’s current estimate of 116.5 million tonnes averaging 26.8 per cent.

Centaurus has already said the ore can be upgraded to a low-purity product averaging 65.6 per cent iron.
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