St Andrew, Royal Victoria And United Tex-Sol join forces

Juniors St Andrew Goldfields (SAS-T), Royal Victoria Minerals (RVM-V) and United Tex-Sol Mines (UTX.a-V) have taken the cue from their big brothers and announced what will amount to a three-way merger deal of their own.

Under the first deal, Royal Victoria shareholder would receive 2 St Andrew shares for each Royal Victoria share held. The exchange ratio values Royal Victoria’s shares at 55 apiece, based on St Andrew’s closing price on January 13.

Under a separate deal, United Tex-Sol shareholder will receive 1 St Andrew share for each United Tex-Sol share tendered. That deal values Tex-Sol’s shares at 27.5 each.

Also under the deal, each of Royal’s and Tex-Sol’s warrants and stock options will be good for St Andrew securities based on the same exchange ratios.

In the end, St Andrew shareholders will own about 76.7% of the surviving entity (St Andrew), Royal Victoria shareholders will have 11.3 %, and United Tex-Sol shareholders will have the remaining 12%. St Andrew will have about 147 million issued shares.

Both agreements are subject to due diligence, formalized documentation and regulatory approval. Royal Victoria and United Tex-Sol must also seek shareholder approval for their respective deals in May. St Andrew hopes to wrap up the transactions by March 31.

St Andrew already holds a 27% stake in each of Royal and United Tex-Sol.

The post-merger St Andrew will boast the largest land position in the Timmins mining camp at 712- sq. km. The company plans to bring production at the Stock gold complex up to 100,000 oz. per year based on feed from the Stock Mine and Taylor, Hislop and Clavos deposits.

A winter drilling program is planned for a new discovery on the Golden Reward East Timmins project. Follow-up exploration is proposed for next summer.

In Alaska, the company plans to return resume production at the Nixon Fork mine and mill back to production at a rate of 45,000 oz. of gold annually over 5 years.