IronRidge Resources, an Australian mineral resources company, has revealed plans to demerge its gold assets in Côte d’Ivoire and Chad into a new gold-focused entity.
The company’s move has been driven by a strategic portfolio review, which concluded that its Cape Coast lithium portfolio in Ghana is materially undervalued in its current structure.
The review found that the lithium portfolio needs a distinct, separate focus to generate its true value.
IronRidge’s board reckons that forming a new gold-focused company in a strong gold market is the best way to realise full value for the company’s shareholders.
Furthermore, the board concluded that the proposed demerger will deliver an investment in two high quality companies for shareholders, with each of them having a clear focus on lithium or gold.
IronRidge CEO Vincent Mascolo said: “The proposed demerger is part of the growth strategy for IronRidge, and today’s news represents a truly unique opportunity for shareholders to benefit from upside in two distinct and diversified companies at an opportune time for gold and lithium, respectively.
“The Board expects that today’s vision can unlock significant shareholder value, help mitigate commodity risk as well as enable the Board to operate with greater efficacies and focus to capitalise on two highly compelling commodity markets.”
The company cautioned that although it intends to advance a demerger of the gold assets, there will be various steps and conditions that have to be addressed as part of finalising the structure of the demerger. Owing to these, there can be no assurance that the demerger will be carried out, said the Australian company.
In Côte d’Ivoire, the Australian firm has a 3,584km2 gold portfolio, which includes its flagship Zaranou gold project. At Zaranou, the company has identified a 47km long gold prospective structure where it has drilled various high-grade gold intersections.
In Chad, the company has rights to a 746km² tenure in Saharan Metacraton where it is said to have uncovered a significant gold bearing province. The company is focusing on the Dorothe gold project in the tenure.
IronRidge’s Cape Coast lithium portfolio in Ghana spans nearly 684km2. It includes the Ewoyaa Lithium Project, which has been newly discovered, and has a maiden mineral resource estimate of 14.5Mt at 1.31% Li2O in the inferred and indicated category.
A scoping study had confirmed the Ewoyaa Lithium Project as a long-life, large-scale, low-cost open pit project with a business case for two million tonnes per annum (Mtpa) production operation.
In September last year, IronRidge signed an agreement to divest its non-core May Queen gold project to Australasian Gold (AGL).
