The Saudi Arabian Mining Company (Ma’aden) has announced the successful completion of the acquisition of a strategic 9.9% stake in US minerals exploration and development company Ivanhoe Electric for $126.5 million
This comes close on the heels of a Heads of Terms signed with Ivanhoe Electric on May 15 in Riyadh. for the 9.9% shares of common stock, said Maaden in its filing to the Saudi bourse Tadawul.
As per the agreement, the duo have also established a 50/50 exploration joint venture in the kingdom to contribute to conducting one of the largest exploration programmes in the world.
This joint agreement will grant Ma’aden the rights to use Ivanhoe’s Typhoon geophysical surveying technology, which will in turn accelerate the exploration of mineral sites in the Kingdom, valued at $1.3 trillion in minerals.
The Saudi mining group said the joint venture will explore 48,500 sq km of selected licenses areas across the kingdom that demonstrate excellent potential.
Ma’aden said the transaction was successfully closed following the fulfillment of all its conditions by the US explorations group.
TradeArabia had earlier reported that Ma’aden had signed a master clauses agreement with Ivanhoe Electric for a JV to explore minerals including copper, gold, nickel and silver in the kingdom.
Ivanhoe Electric is a New York-listed mineral exploration and development company in the US that combines advanced mineral exploration technologies, renewable energy storage solutions and electric metals projects.
Under the transaction terms, Ma'aden will obtain the right to appoint one independent director to the Ivanhoe Electric's Board of Directors and will be issued with approximately 10.2 million new common shares in the US group at a price of $12.38 per share.
Through the JV, Ma'aden will obtain royalty free access to Ivanhoe Electric's proprietary Typhoon technology, which conducts geophysical surveys using high powered transmitters to detect the presence of sulfide minerals containing copper, nickel, gold and silver.
This will help accelerate, de-risk and advance Ma'aden's exploration lands being made available to the joint venture, thereby enabling Ma'aden to realize value from its exploration assets, it added.-TradeArabia News Service
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