Perseus Mining Plans Gold Acquisitions in West Africa, Company’s CEO Says
By Bloomberg · September 21, 2010 · 2:04 am · Leave a Comment
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By Elisabeth Behrmann
Perseus Mining Ltd., an Australian gold company building a mine in Ghana, plans to make acquisitions in West Africa from next year.
“If we don’t get swallowed, we’ll use our early stage production to our advantage” to take part in consolidation once revenue from the mine starts flowing in the third quarter next year, Managing Director Mark Calderwood said in an interview. Perseus hasn’t had any recent takeover approaches, he said.
UBS AG yesterday named Perseus and Adamus Resources Ltd. as potential targets partly because of their West African projects. Gold’s climb to a record this year has pushed acquisitions in the sector to an all-time high, with Kinross Gold Corp.’s C$7.4 billion ($7.2 billion) takeover of Red Back Mining Inc., the latest in West Africa.
Perseus slipped 1 cent to A$3.24 at 2:43 p.m. in Sydney. Its shares have jumped 83 percent this year.
Perseus, based in Perth and with a market value of A$1.37 billion ($1.29 billion), is developing the $160 million Central Ashanti gold project in southern Ghana and the Tengrela project in Ivory Coast. Central Ashanti is set to start output in the third quarter next year, with average production of 275,000 ounces a year over 13 years, UBS said.
The company already has a 19.9 percent stake in Burey Gold Ltd., an exploration company that focuses on Guinea.
