Summary outlook for Merrex- 2015-2016Judging by the number clicks on the last few posts, there is a lot of new interest in Merrex, and for good reason. Share price has been firm and increasing while almost every gold stock out there is getting killed. So for newly interested investors, here is a brief summary on the major items that existing shareholders may be approximately anticipating over the next year and a half.
Q1 and Q2 2015
50% JV partner and operator IAMGold has embarked on a $3.8 million drilling program on the Diakha deposit after last year's huge success. They have found what appears to be a twin deposit of IMG's Boto deposit just across the river. IMG will begin a pre-feas study on Boto in a few months and it is expected that they will want to include Diakha in the study. So the current drilling program on Diakha is going flat-out with 2 drills with the intent to delineate the deposit and maximize the contained ounces which will form part of a new mining operation within 2 years.
The other significant event in Q1/Q2 will be the receipt of an exploration permit on Karita (100% owned by Merrex), also just across the river. Part of that permit lines up right in between Boto and Diakha and has lots of artisanal gold workings on it so the likelihood of a third quality deposit is very high there.
Q3 2015
The $3.8 million drilling budget will be exhausted by the start of the rainy season in July/2015. Q3 will see the final receipt of assays of the drilling program. The results will be inserted into IMG's geological model for the deposit, ounces calculated. Then negotiations start for IMG to buy up 100% of Diakha (maybe 2 million oz) and Siribaya (nearly 1 million oz).
Q4 2015
Merrex purchased by IMG for a value of anywhere between $65 million and $140 million, depending on drill results and pricing. Eastern JV permits and Karita permit spun out into "New-Merrex" with Merrex shareholders holding their proportional shares into the new company (including IMG with about 20% ownership of New-Merrex).
2016
New-Merrex will raise capital and drill heavily in Karita with the intent of a maiden NR43-101 resource by the end of 2016 or early 2017, with another pending sale of Karita (2-3 million oz) to IMG. Shareholders should enjoy another big gain as results for Karita come in......if they are good results...... because the success of Diakha will put New-Merrex on a lot of investors' radar screens.
The above is solely the opinions of the writer on how this will play out. Do your own due diligence.