Gold Terra CEO stepping down in management shuffle
Gold Terra Resources Corp. [YGT-TSXV, YGTFF-OTCQX, TXO-Frankfurt] has announced a corporate restructuring of senior management as its focuses exploration efforts on a recently announced option to purchase the Con Mine near Yellowknife, N.W.T.
Gold Terra said President and CEO David Suda has notified the company of his intention to step down on December 31, 2021 to pursue other opportunities. However, under a one-year consulting agreement, Suda will provide advisory services to the company on a part time basis.
Gerald Panneton, currently Executive Chairman, will assume the role of Chairman and CEO, effective January 1, 2022. Company founder Joe Campbell remains Chief Operating Officer and Mark Brown will continue in the Chief Financial officer role.
Gold Terra shares were unchanged at 21.5 cents and currently trade in a 52-week range of 35 cents and 16 cents, leaving the company with a market cap of $42.2 million, based on 196.5 million shares outstanding.
The executive shuffle has been announced after Gold Terra recently signed a deal with subsidiaries of Newmont Corp., [NGT-TSX, NEM-NYSE], that gives the junior the option to purchase all of the assets, mineral leases, Crown mineral claims and surface rights related to the Con Mine, as well as areas immediately adjacent to the former mine.
Newmont agreed to make the strategic acquisition of 7.14 million shares of Gold Terra at 21 cents per shares, with gross proceeds of $1.5 million earmarked for exploration at the Con Property.
The option deal enables Gold Terra to purchase 100% of a Newmont subsidiary that owns the Con Mine, which produced more than 6.1 million ounces of gold along the Campbell Shear structure. The option agreement will immediately replace and supersede an initial exploration agreement dated September 4, 2020, and allows Gold Terra to fully explore 100% of the Campbell Shear structure at the Con Mine and south of it.
Under the option agreement, Gold Terra has committed to spend a minimum of $8.0 million on exploration over four years, an amount that includes all exploration expenses incurred under the initial agreement. Gold Terra has spent $3.0 million to date.
Gold Terra has also pledged to complete a pre-feasibility study on a mineral resource amounting to a minimum of 1.5 million ounces in all categories. It has also committed to obtain all necessary regulatory approvals for the purchase and transfer of the Newmont subsidiary assets to Gold Terra.
Those assets include a 1,950-metre-deep Robertson shaft and 100% of the Campbell Shear, which remains open to the south and at depth.
“Also with this option, we will be able to test some areas of the past-producing Con Mine that were left behind after closing in 2003 at a time of sustained low gold prices,” Panneton said.
Under the deal, Gold Terra is also required to post a cash bond to reflect the status of the Con Mine reclamation plan at the time of closing