Santa Fe Minerals (ASX: SFM) has entered into a binding share purchase agreement to acquire the Eburnea gold project in Côte d’Ivoire from Turaco Gold (ASX: TCG). Santa Fe Minerals is an Australian exploration company focused on discovering and developing economic mineral deposits. Turaco Gold is also an Australian company, that is dedicated to discovering gold deposits in Côte d’Ivoire.
The Eburnea project includes the granted Satama exploration permit licence PR544 and a 65% interest in the Bouake North application exploration permit PRA575. Prior exploration at Satama has identified a mineralised corridor stretching over 20 kilometres, with drilling at the Main Zone revealing continuous gold mineralisation across approximately 2km of strike. The Main Zone remains open to the north, south, and at depth, and several sub-parallel mineralised zones are priority exploration targets.
The Bouake North application area sits 35km from Endeavour Mining’s Lafigue gold mine. Initial drilling across two zones within Bouake North has defined significant gold mineralisation along a 2km strike. Santa Fe can increase its interest in the permit to 80% upon the granting of an exploration licence, with a further option to move to 90%.
To fund the acquisition and exploration programs, Santa Fe has secured binding commitments to raise $1.2 million through the issue of 24 million shares at $0.05 each, subject to shareholder approval. Turaco will receive 12 million Santa Fe shares and 4 million performance rights, resulting in an 11% shareholding in Santa Fe post-transaction. Turaco plans to focus on its Afema project, while still benefiting from the Eburnea project’s exploration success through its shareholding in Santa Fe.
