CÔTE D’IVOIRE – Endeavour Mining, a multi-asset gold producer focused on West Africa, has announced that it has entered into an agreement to sell its 85% interest in its non-core Agbaou mine in Côte d’Ivoire to Allied Gold for a consideration of up to US$80 million with further upside through its equity exposure and a net smelter return royalty.
When the transaction closes, the Bonikro-Agbaou operation will comprise multiple openpits, and two processing plants with a total milling capacity of over five-million tons a year, producing a potential 285 000 oz/y.
“Agbaou has been a highly cash generative asset which facilitated the organic development of Houndé and Ity and given that it has now become noncore to Endeavour, we firmly believe that this transaction is in the best interests of all of Agbaou’s stakeholders, including the government of Cote d’Ivoire, local communities and the employees themselves,” commented Endeavour president and CEO Sébastien de Montessus.
In the first nine months of 2020, the Agbaou mine produced 76 713 oz of gold at an all-in sustaining cost of US$1013/oz.
Agbaou has measured and indicated resources, inclusive of reserves, of 7.6 million tonnes at 2.14 g/t containing 519 000 oz.
Based on known reserves, Agabou’s mine life is expected to cease by the end of 2022 but Allied intends to extend the life-of-mine through continued regional exploration activities in the near term.
Endeavour’s carrying book value on September 30, for its interest in the Agbaou mine stood at US$103 million and is expected to be below US$90 million at year-end.
Endeavour owns an 85% stake in the Agbaou mine, with the remainder owned by the government of Côte d’Ivoire (10%) and SODEMI (5%).
Endeavour Mining is a multi-asset gold producer focused on West Africa, with two mines (Ity and Agbaou) in Côte d’Ivoire, four mines (Houndé, Mana, Karma and Boungou) in Burkina Faso, four potential development projects (Fetekro, Kalana, Bantou and Nabanga) and a strong portfolio of exploration assets on the highly prospective Birimian Greenstone Belt across Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Mali and Guinea.
Allied Gold Corp is a privately owned, Africa-focused gold company. Once the Allied Gold pending transactions close, they will own three producing assets (Agbaou and Bonikro in Cote d’Ivoire and Sadiola mine in Mali) and a strong project development pipeline (Sadiola Sulphide project in Mali and Dish Mountain in Ethiopia). The company also holds exploration acreage of 600km2 in El Sid, Egypt.
Allied Gold acquired the Bonikro mine in 2019. Bonikro’s Measured and Indicated resources, inclusive of reserves, as of December 31, 2019, stood at 25.5MT at 1.66 g/t Au containing 1.4Moz.
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