By Samuel Indyk
Investing.com – Greatland Gold’s joint venture partner on its Havieron Project, Newcrest Mining Ltd (ASX:NCM), has issued a notice informing Greatland Gold (LON:GGPL) that it would like to trigger the option to purchase an additional 5% interest in the joint venture.
As the joint venture partner, Newcrest has the option to acquire an additional 5% interest in the Havieron joint venture from Greatland Gold at fair market value.
Newcrest informed the AIM-listed company that it will seek to agree the option exercise price in the period to mid-February 2022.
Under the current joint venture agreement, if the option exercise price cannot be agreed by this date, each party is required to notify the other of its assessment of fair market value. If both parties’ assessments are within 10% of each other, the option exercise price will be the average of the two assessments.
If the valuations are not within 10% of each other, the parties will proceed to independent expert determination.
Following an agreement or determination of the fair market value, Newcrest will then have 30 business days to exercise the option to acquire the additional 5%.
Greatland Gold said proceeds from the exercise will first be used to repay the outstanding balance under the existing Newcrest loan facility.
As previously announced, following delivery of a pre-feasibility study and meeting the relevant expenditure commitments, Newcrest is entitled to an additional 10% joint venture interest and exercising this will result in an overall joint venture interest of 70% for Newcrest.
If the option is exercised, Newcrest will be entitled to an overall joint venture interest of 75%, leaving Greatland Gold with 25%.
At 10:53GMT, Greatland Gold shares were trading higher by 6.3% at 13.50 pence per share.