Sandfire Resources has confirmed that it will potentially make a takeover offer for MOD Resources.
An Australian Financial Review (AFR) report yesterday suggested that Sandfire’s board had approached copper junior MOD with an offer in excess of its current $54.7 million valuation.
Sandfire responded with an announcement via the ASX this morning, confirming the takeover talks in the release.
The company said the approach was “preliminary, indicative and non-binding” in nature and that the transaction had not been confirmed.
MOD Resources is a Perth-based, African-focused company with copper-silver exploration projects in Botswana.
Of primary interest is the company’s $US154.8 million ($216.1 million) T3 copper project in Botswana’s Kalahari copper belt.
The project contains an indicated resource of 60 million tonnes of ore at 0.98 per cent copper and 14 grams per tonne of silver for 417,000 tonnes of copper and 18.6 million ounces of silver.
MOD is on track to complete T3’s feasibility study by the end of the March 2019 quarter, and estimates an initial 8.8-year mine life, with the prospect of expansion to 11.7 years.
Sandfire did not initially provide any monetary details regarding the takeover offer but a follow-up announcement released by the company revealed a figure of 38 cents per MOD share.
MOD’s share price today stands at 22 cents per share, so this offer would represent a considerable boost on the company’s current valuation in keeping with the details of yesterday’s AFR story.
The company holds 248.57 million shares, meaning the offer would equate to roughly $94.5 million if Sandfire were to purchase 100 per cent of the company.
MOD recently became a dual-listed company following successful entry to the London Stock Exchange (LSE).