Lions Gate To Go Global With Merger

VANCOUVER — Lions Gate Metals (LGM-V) is planning to buy Aus- NiCo, a private Australian nickel explorer.

The proposed deal sees each company nominating three directors to the board of the combined company.

If the merger goes through, Lions Gate would issue 10 million shares and 3 million warrants exercisable at $1.10 and valid for five years to AusNiCo, which is 79%-owned by D’Aguilar Gold (DGR-A). At presstime the shares were worth $11 million.

The proposal is contingent on Lions Gate completing a $3-million private placement.

The resulting company, which would keep the Lions Gate name, will combine Lions Gate’s significant copper and molybdenum assets in B. C. with Aus- NiCo’s nickel prospects in Australia.

AusNiCo owns 1,760-sq.-km of concessions in southeast Queensland where it has outlined several nickel sulphide targets. The major targets, 200 km northwest of Brisbane, are situated on the Black Snake Plateau.

As for Lions Gate, its flagship project is the Poplar copper-moly project 35 km northeast of Houston, B. C., where a historical resource estimate pegs the main Poplar zone at 236 million tonnes grading 0.37% copper, 0.1 gram gold per tonne and 0.0095% molybdenum.

Investors appeared to support the merger as Lions Gate’s share price surged 21¢ to $1.16 on the news.