Golden Knight shareholders OK merger with Repadre

Shareholders of Golden Knight Resources (GKR-T) have approved a proposed merger with Toronto-based royalty company Repadre Capital (RPD-T).

More than 99.6% of shareholders voted in favour of Golden Knight’s merging with a wholly owned subsidiary of Repadre. Consequently, Golden Knight is to be delisted from the Toronto Stock Exchange and from the over-the-counter Bulletin Board in the U.S.

For each share tendered, Golden Knight shareholders will receive 0.125 of a Repadre share and 33 cents in cash, or 0.2 of a share and 0.2 of a warrant. A whole warrant entitles the holder to buy an additional share at $4 for up to three years and receive 10 cents in cash.

Golden Knight’s major asset is a 17.5% equity position in Gold Fields Ghana Ltd. (GFGL), which owns the Tarkwa gold mine in southern Ghana. Tarkwa produced 137,000 oz. in 1998 from both the new surface mine and the older, underground mine. The new open-pit, heap-leach operation started up in May 1998 and, for the year, produced 83,000 oz. at a cash operating cost of US$240 per oz. (excluding management fees and rehabilitation provisions).

South African-based Gold Fields (GLDFY-Q) is the operator at Tarkwa, with a 70% interest. The other shareholders in GFGL are the Ghanaian government, with 10%, and the Social Security & Natural Insurance Trust of Ghana, with 2.5%.

The first 20 years of reserves at Tarkwa weigh in at about 129 million tonnes grading 1.26 grams gold per tonne. The overall stripping ratio is pegged at 2.25-to-1.

The current mining plan targets portions of Pepe, Akontansi East and Akontansi Ridge — three of the project’s five deposits, which together host a measured resource of 286.6 million tonnes grading 1.39 grams gold per tonne, equivalent to 12.8 million contained ounces.