B2Gold Mining Investments Limited and B2Gold Namibia will shell out N$117 million to increase their shareholding in gold mining subsidiary Razorback Gold Mining to 100% by exercising a call option.
Under the call option, B2Gold will buy gold and uranium miner Forsys Metals’ 51% shareholding in Razorback, which holds the Ondundu exclusive prospecting licence (EPL) in Namibia for base, rare and precious metals exploration.
The N$117 million call option price is less the fees paid by B2Gold for the extension of the option period, which amounted to N$128 million and less the other payments made by B2Gold to buy out interests in Ondundu amounting to N$8.1 million.
B2Gold has previously announced that it plans to embark on exploration activities this year armed with a N$985 million budget, N$440 allocated to on-going exploration.
Discovered in 1917, EPL 3195 is located in the northern zone of the Neoproterozoic Damara Orogen in north-central Namibia. Ondundu is a sediment-hosted, structurally controlled, mesothermal gold deposit belonging to a family of deposits that includes some of the world’s most significant gold resources.
B2Gold owns and operates the Otjikoto Mine, currently the largest gold producer in the country, which it acquired through a merger with Auryx Gold Corp. in December 2011.
