MID-TIER gold producer St Barbara has taken a 10% stake in Tanami explorer ABM Resources.
ABM secured commitments for a A$6 million private placement at 10c per share, a 26.6% premium to ABM’s last closing price of 7.9c.
St Barbara will chip in $4.4 million, giving the miner around 10% of ABM.
The company already holds 16% stakes in Victorian gold explorer Catalyst Metals and Cobar Basin explorer Peel Mining.
St Barbara joins fellow mid-tier Independence Group as a substantial shareholder in ABM.
IGO holds around 9% currently and is in a joint venture with ABM at Lake Mackay.
“Having two successful exploration and mining companies, such as St Barbara and IGO, support ABM is a clear confirmation of the quality of ABM’s exploration team, strategy and portfolio of high-quality gold and base metal projects,” ABM managing director Matt Briggs said.
“The Tanami is becoming the exploration destination of choice for major Australian gold producers.”
Australia’s largest gold producer, US-based Newmont Mining, is the major player in the region via its 400,000ozpa-plus (and growing) Tanami operation, while Northern Star Resources has been beefing up its landholding in the area to complement the Central Tanami development project.
ABM said it remained focused on making Australia’s next major gold discovery, and now has around $10 million in cash to assist with that goal.
“A 9500m aircore program is planned to commence this quarter, infilling the 8km-long bedrock gold anomaly recognised at Capstan, and other targets along trend from the world-class Callie gold mine,” Briggs said.
IGO has been receiving some interesting polymetallic hits across multiple prospects at Lake Mackay as part of a $6 million earn-in, while last month ABM agreed to farm-out up to 70% of its North Arunta polymetallic project to Gladiator Resources for up to $6.5 million.
Shares in ABM opened 32% higher at 10.5c.
TAM Price at posting:
4.1¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
