Gold Fields (GFI-N) is taking a swath of land around South Deep that it says will give it roughly 16.2 million oz. of gold.
The South African miner will pay JCI Limited and Randgold & Exploration (GOLD-N, RRS-L) US$56 million for rights to the grounds which are contiguous to its South Deep gold mine.
The deal will need the approval of at least 50% of the shareholders of JCI and Randgold and Exploration. Those shareholders meetings are scheduled for the last week of September.
If the deal goes through, Gold Fields will wind up with a 74% stake in a company holding the exploration rights while Peotona Gold — a black empowerment company will hold the balance.
Gold Fields says the ground can be accessed through the existing South Deep Infrastructure, which it has a 50% stake in. Barrick Gold (ABX-T, ABX-N) holds the other half.
As of December 2006, the company had a total attributable gold resource — excluding platinum and copper equivalents of 235 millionoz. and attributable gold reserves 91.6 million oz.
The company says its 16.2 million oz. estimate was made using a 5 grams gold per tonne cut-off.
In New York on July 27 the companys shares were off 2% or 35 to US$16.37 on 2.4 million shares traded.
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