If you are smart enough to remember how to fall off a bicycle, you qualify as wise enough to be buying shares in
Calibre Mining (
TSX:CXB). It’s that easy.
B2Gold Corp., run by
Clive Johnson, is a four billion dollar company. They had two gold mines in Nicaragua but have transitioned to mining in Africa and the far east. Johnson is not above trying to maximize value for his shareholders so when the decision was made to focus on larger mines in Africa, he looked around for a suitable junior to take over the existing production assets in Nicaragua. There was such a junior right in their own backyard and a deal was cut.
Essentially B2 is selling the El Limon gold mine with a 500,000 TPA mill with a partial Q4 guidance of 14,000-17,000 ounces with a AISC of $950-$990 USD and the La Libertad gold mine with a 2.2 MTPA mill with a partial Q4 guidance of 17,000-20,000 ounces showing an AISC of $930-$960 for about US $100 million in cash and shares. The new owner of the two mines and a couple of extra projects with potential is named
Calibre Mining with a ten-year history of exploration in Nicaragua.
B2 is ending up with $40 million USD in crisp $100 bills along with 29% of the shares of Calibre and a $10 million US convertible note with an additional $10 million US due in a year.
The deal makes a ton of sense for both companies. B2 has operating mines in Mali producing about 425,000 ounces of gold a year, another gold mine in the Philippines doing about 205,000 ounces a year and yet another in Namibia showing production of about 170,000 ounces of gold a year.
While their two existing mines in Nicaragua built the structure for B2, with total production of about 140,000 to 150,000 ounces total wasn’t enough to move the needle for shareholders.
For Calibre it gives them the opportunity to move into the lower reaches of being a mid-tier producer with a lot of exploration potential. For investors it gives a chance to pick up a company with existing producing mines and about $75,000,000 above and beyond AISC yearly. This is a good deal for everyone and as easy as falling off a bike.
The potential for a revaluation of the shares is giant. At the issue price of $.60 a share for the deal on a peer basis, Calibre has a 300% potential move higher and on gold resources, has a 200% potential move higher. While B2 could have kept the mines and operated them themselves, they have a large potential for expanding what they will get for the mines in total and for Calibre and investors it really looks like a slam dunk for higher prices.
The company has hit the ground running. On October 31st Calibre announced some great
drill intercepts from both mines. (Click
here for images)
Calibre is cheap and while I believe mining shares will generally decline into the Tax Loss Silly Season, the current valuation is absurd. They had to have a lot price to attract money from major investors to do the deal but the deal has been done and the stock is going higher if gold is steady, a lot higher if gold actually goes up and will at least stay where it is if gold goes down.
I had a chance to participate in the financing and I took a lot higher position than I have for any stock in years. I love this deal. Calibre is an advertiser, I bellied up to the bar in the financing and I am biased. Do your own due diligence.
By the way, they have done an excellent job on the presentation.
Read it.
Calibre Mining Corp.
CXB-T $.75 (Oct 31, 2019)
CXBMF-OTCBB 310.3 million shares
Calibre Mining
website.
For the original story, visit 321gold.com.