Cardinal gets an offer from Nordgold

According to Mining News Pro - Nordgold has more than 98.4-million shares in Cardinal, giving the company a 19.9% interest in the ASX-listed junior. The shareholding included more than 81-million shares acquired from a subsidiary of Gold Fields at a price of 45c a share.

Nordgold has provided Cardinal with a nonbinding indicative and conditional proposal to acquire all the company’s outstanding shares for an offer price of 45.77c a share, valuing Cardinal at about A$227-million.

The offer represented a cash premium of 83% to Cardinal’s closing price on March 13, Nordgold said on Monday.

Nordgold is seeking access to conduct a due diligence on certain key aspect’s of Cardinal’s Namindi gold project, in Ghana, where the company was recently granted a water extraction licence and had its resettlement action plan approved by the Ghanaian government.

An October feasibility study into the project estimated that it would produce some 4.2-million ounces of gold over a mine life of 15 years, with an estimated 1.1-million ounces expected over the first three years of the operation. Namindi is expected to cost $390-million to develop.

Nordgold noted that a final takeover offer would be condition on the successful completion of this due diligence and the satisfaction and approval of its board of directors.

Privately held Nordgold operates ten gold mines, of which three are in Burkina Faso and one is in Guinea.