Chinese eye Twin Hill’s gold

Offer Osino N$5bn
Jo-Maré Duddy
  • 7 Months Ago - 2024-02-29 00:00:00
Yintai Gold Co., a Chinese mining company listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, has entered into a binding arrangement agreement with Osino Resources Corp. to buy all of the outstanding common shares of the Canadian company for 368 million Canadian dollar, or more than N$5 billion.

Osino owns the Twin Hills Gold Project in Namibia, an open-pit gold project in central Namibia which is expected to start production by mid-2026. The mine has a 13-year life and average annual gold production of over 169 000 ounces of gold per year.

“Twin Hills represents a unique opportunity to add a high-quality gold development asset to our portfolio in a stable and mining friendly jurisdiction,” Yintai president Xingong Ou said in a statement.

Part of the agreement is loan facility of US$10 million or about N$190 million from Yintai to Osino. This will enable “the continued, fast-tracked development of the Twin Hills Gold Project and to fund other liquidity needs of the company”, Osino said.

Subject to regulatory approval, the transaction between Osino and Yintai is expected to be concluded in the first half of this year.

DPM

Osino terminated a definitive agreement with Dundee Precious Metals (DPM), which was closed in December. DPM wanted to buy all the outstanding common shares in Osino for C$287 million, or about N$4 billion.

“Whilst we were appreciative of the previous offer from DPM, the all-cash offer from Yintai represents a significant premium to the DPM offer price, thus is clearly a superior proposal, and is an excellent outcome for Osino’s shareholders,” Osino president and CEO Heye Daun said in a statement.

“Yintai is experienced, well-financed, and has a highly credible track record of gold mining in China, with the technical skills and financial resources to progress the project through construction and into production,” Daun said.

Foundation

According to Xingong, Twin Hills provides the foundation for Yintai’s future production profile, with production targeted for 2026, as well as significant exploration upside.

Yintai has a market capitalisation of US$5.6 billion on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, as well as more than US$570 million in cash and cash equivalents.

The company has five has mining operations in China.