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The reason for changing the name of a former ill-fated project and/or company is to protect it from any lingering negative bias. The Phoenix Gold Project, now called the Bateman Gold Project, which was previously owned by Rubicon Minerals, now Battle North Gold, fits the bill.
The critical problems with the deposit’s gold mineralization include a lack of continuity and high variability, (Fig. 11). A changing structural interpretation of the gold mineralization has underpinned a significant drop in the global resource from 3.3 million ounces in 2013 to about 1 million ounces in 2018. Currently, it stands at 733,000 ounces grading 7.0 grams per tonne gold between the F2 and Finlay zones.
Regardless, previous operators had sunk about C$770 million into the 1,800 tonne per day plant facility and underground mine development, including a shaft, (Fig. 12); therefore, Battle North did not think it needed a lot more funds to get the project into commercial production (C$109 M).
The timing of the transaction may have been dictated by the Bateman project’s development timeline, as Evolution Mining would rather acquire Battle North Gold before it started using the plant to treat its own ore from the F2 Zone.
Despite the issues with the project’s development (grade continuity, small resource), the transaction makes more sense than the other two because of the permitted plant and the size of the land package.
Based on its peer group of junior developers, the acquisition cost (EV/oz) was a significant premium (US$173 vs. US$50-55) due, most likely to the permitted plant facility and sizable land package in Ontario.