Integra Gold (ICG.V) has announced it has closed the acquisition of the 2,200 tonnes per day Sigma-Lamaque mill right across the street from its Lamaque project. As previously said, Integra is acquiring these assets on the cheap by paying just C$1.8M in cash and issuing 25 million shares for a total acquisition cost of just C$8M versus a replacement value of C$100M. As Integra has also signed an agreement with a local company which will use the company’s waste rock, Integra’s effective cash outflow for this mill acquisition is less than $1M.
The closing of this deal is an important milestone as we had the impression a lot of parties were waiting for dipping their toes in until all necessary documents had been signed as bankruptcy cases could sometimes take longer than expected. It’s also important to mention that Deutsche Bank will now end up with almost 12% of Integra’s shares, and we wouldn’t be surprised if the German bank would keep those shares for investment purposes instead of dumping the 25 million shares on the market after each lockup date.
More good news followed, as Integra Gold has also appointed a Chief Operating Officer. The company has hired Langis St Pierre for this function, and we consider him to be an excellent person for this job. Not only does he has decades of experience in the Abitibi greenstone belt in Canada, his most recent job was mine manager for IAMgold’s subsidiary in Burkina Faso. This means that St Pierre has both the operational as well as management skills for a mining operation, and it looks like Integra Gold couldn’t have found a better guy to fill the position. By already hiring a COO, Integra once again shows it’s extremely committed to fast-tracking the Lamaque project towards producing.
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Disclosure: The author holds a long position in Integra Gold. Integra is a sponsor of the website. Please see our disclaimer for current positions.
