Mining

Boss Resources sells off African gold interests to focus on Honeymoon uranium project

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By Imelda Cotton - 
Boss Resources ASX BOE sells African gold interests Honeymoon uranium project

Boss Resources has sold its interest in the Golden Hill and Gourma Projects to joint venture partner Teranga for $10 million cash.

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Perth-based Boss Resources (ASX: BOE) has agreed to divest its interests in the Golden Hill and Gourma gold projects in Burkina Faso to joint venture partner Teranga Gold (Australia).

The sale will allow Boss to maintain a focus on near-term production from the historic Honeymoon uranium project, 80 kilometres northwest of Broken Hill in South Australia.

Under the terms of the agreement, Boss will sell all of its shares in the entities which hold its interests in the projects, namely Boss Minerals Pty Ltd and Askia Gold Pty Ltd, to Teranga Gold (Australia) for a cash consideration of $10 million.

Hedging strategy

Boss originally entered a binding heads of agreement to establish a joint venture over a suite of gold assets across 1750 square kilometres of Burkina Faso acreage in 2014, with a view to diversifying beyond the uranium market.

The joint venture included the Golden Hill and Gourma projects and was signed with Gryphon Minerals, which was later acquired by Teranga Gold Corporation, the parent company of Teranga Gold (Australia).

The Golden Hill property was the most advanced in the suite and is comprised of three adjacent exploration permits covering 468sqkm in the central part of the Houndé greenstone belt.

The belt hosts a number of high-grade gold discoveries including the Siou, Yaramoko and Houndé deposits, the latter property being contiguous with Golden Hill.

The Gourma project is located within the Fada N’Gourma greenstone belt, 250km east of Ouagadougou and 80km south-southwest of Niger’s largest gold deposit – the 50,000 ounce per annum Samira Hill gold mine.

Gourma consists of four contiguous permits (Diabatou, Tyara, Foutouri and Boutouanou) covering a total area of 850sqkm.

It covers a highly under-explored sequence of Birimian greenstones hosting abundant artisanal workings within strike extensive regional shear zones.

Australia’s next producer

The Honeymoon project is located on 2600sqkm of prospective land tenure near Broken Hill, and consists of one granted mining lease, five granted exploration licenses, three retention leases and two miscellaneous purpose licenses.

The project has a JORC resource of 63.3 million pounds uranium oxide and significant resource expansion upside in excess of 100mlbs.

Boss is currently executing a three-phase strategy to restart operations at Honeymoon, after which it hopes to be in a position to proceed to mining assuming the achievement of a specified global uranium price to satisfy internal rate of return and net present value targets.

In its 2018 annual report, the company said it is proactively advancing the definitive feasibility study and positioning Honeymoon to be Australia’s next producer.

At midday, shares in Boss Resources were trading 1.35% lower at $0.073.