Calibre Mining – Unpacking The Proposed Business Acquisition Of Marathon Gold
Ryan King, Senior VP of Corporate Development and IR at Calibre Mining (TSX.V:CXB – OTCQX:CXBMF), joins us to provide a general overview of the announcement from November 13th, where the Company has entered into a definitive arrangement agreement whereby Calibre will acquire all of the issued and outstanding common shares of Marathon Gold (TSX: MOZ – OTC: MGDPF ) pursuant to a court-approved plan of arrangement.
We get into some of the main value drivers of the pro-forma company, the opportunities for growth and value creation, the diversification of jurisdiction risk, and the quality of the management teams to move the Valentine Gold Project forward into production.
Key highlights of the Transaction include:
- Creates a high-margin, cash flow focused, mid-tier gold producer in the Americas with estimated annual production of 500 koz Au per year (2025 – 2026E average)
- Strong balance sheet with estimated combined cash of approximately US$148 million and significant free cash flow generation, ensuring the seamless completion of Valentine during the final 50% of construction
- Significant combined mineral endowment of over 4.0 million ounces of mineral reserves, 8.6 million ounces of measured and indicated mineral resources (inclusive of mineral reserves) and 4.0 million ounces of inferred mineral resources (as further detailed in the tables below)3
- Peer leading production growth of 80% (2024 – 2026E)
- Approximately 60% NAV in tier-1 mining jurisdictions1 with pro-forma market capitalization of approximately US$750 million, providing scale, enhanced trading liquidity, and a strong re-rating potential as a mid-tier gold producer
- Valentine to add expected average annual gold production of 195 koz at low projected All-in Sustaining Costs (AISC) of US$1,007 per ounce through the first 12 years of production beginning in 2025
- Robust annual cash flow from operations of US$380 million (2025 – 2026E)
- A continuous flow of exciting discovery and resource-building drill results from Nicaragua, Nevada, and Newfoundland & Labrador
We also had Ryan give us a brief update on the closing of the previously announced C$40 million financing of Marathon, and that effective, after the closing of the Private Placement, Calibre owns 14.2% of the issued and outstanding Marathon Shares.
If you have any questions for Ryan regarding Calibre Mining, then please email us at either Fleck@kereport.com or Shad@kereport.com.
- In full disclosure Shad is a shareholder of Calibre Mining at the time of this recording.
.
Right page , or Wrong page !!! … Oh i dont care …………………………………………………………………………………………… lol
irishtony
8 hours ago
Just for fun !!! or not ……. Klaus Schwab presents – Vaxxmas Hits 23.
I liked the first 2 and a half minutes. DT
CXB is a good company. That’s why B2Gold owns 25% of it. That’s part of the reason why B2Gold pays a 5% dividend.
The Calibre team has absolutely shown they are new mine builders, as well as existing mine optimizers.
Just this year they brought into production new mines at Pavon Central and Eastern Borosi, as well as brining in some of the other open pit and underground mines in years past that are feeding into their Libertad and Limon mills. I believe their next mine slated to come into production in Nicaragua is Pavon Norte, and they are also exploring the most economic way to bring GoldRock into production in Nevada in about 2 years.
Clearly though, this Valentine Gold Mine is an order of magnitude larger mine to bring into production, than the other smaller mines the CXB team has done up until present in this company. Having said that, the team at Calibre (Darren in particular) has brought online much larger mines with some of the majors he’s worked for in the past, so this is within their wheelhouse of experience. It will be interesting to see how the transition from the Marathon team to the Calibre team goes as far as better execution on bringing this into production in 2025.
Both of those 2 new mines this year were explored, then developed separately as open pits, and then mined and trucked over 300-400 kilometers to the existing Libertad mill. So they were new mines, but not new mills. B2Gold had built the mills.
Pavon is a 300 kilometers away from the Libertad mill whereas their initial mine was more nearby the mill. It is a legitimate satellite pit. They first developed Pavon Norte 2 years back, and then Pavon Central was a whole new mining pit they dug out and started producing from in 2023.
Then Eastern Borosi was a totally new discovery, that went all the way from exploration to development and now production this year and it is being trucked about 400 kms to the Liberatad Mill. Again, it’s a legitimate new mine.
>> Here is a map for reference:
https://www.calibremining.com/assets/hub-spoke-strategy/
So my point was that they are mine builders and have already built 3 mines. Ryan mentioned that in the interview linked above. Additionally Ryan has discussed a number of times on interviews that Darren and some of the management team has built very large mines prior to being with Calibre, at some of the previous projects he built for majors like Newmarket Gold into Kirkland Lake, and a number of mines for Newmont. Those prior projects had mines and mills developed and built to then move into production on a scale more on par with the Valentine Gold project, so this is not their first rodeo.
I think the wildcard remains that they are taking over a project this half-way built, and a lot capital has already been deployed, with a lot left to deploy from their credit facility, from the $40 million just injected in the financing, through cash on hand at Calibre, and through incoming production revenues from CXB’s current mines.
Now whether the transition and 2nd half of the mine build goes smoothly remains to be seen, but I’ve got a fair bit of confidence in the proficiency that the Calibre team has shown the last few years in both Nicaragua and Nevada. Of course, mining is a very tough business and riddled with challenges and potential choke points in operations, so it isn’t easy for any company. I just have seen them repeatedly deliver on projections, guidance, and milestones for a few years now and that gives me more confidence in a team that has consistently executed.
Yes Terry – B2Gold still has the key stakeholding in Calbre, from when CXB acquired the mills and 1st mine from BTO/BTG, when they were getting ready to shut everything down in Nicaragua as their reserves were at the end of the mine life.
Since that time the team at Calibre has demonstrated not just their proficiency in the fine-tuning the mining operations, but they’ve done a bang-up job with exploration success in finding new satellite deposits to bring into the development and production profile. They’ve also grown their resources by over 250% since then, and upped their production output by double-digits the last few years… showing B2Gold left a lot of food on the table. As you pointed out though, BTO/BTG has done well on their Calibre stake keeping some good exposure to all the action in Nicaragua, which has now expanded into more projects in Nevada, Washington, and now Newfoundland and Labrador.
Clearly Calibre got a great opportunity that they’ve continued to exploit and execute on the last few years, but B2Gold has done pretty good as well outsourcing all the work to the CXB team.
Growth and relating puts it into $B’s market cap
Sure thing Marc, and yes, Ryan did a great job in fielding some of those questions that Cory & I had, and that were echoed by a number of the questions people had submitted into us with regards to synergies, costs, organic growth, with regards to the proposed Calibre takeover of Marathon Gold, in addition to their $40 million capital raise into Marathon to acquire the 14% stake in their equities.
Great points Marc. Agreed!
Festivus With The Rest of Us – Mining Executives (Replay from this morning)
Hosted by Crux Investor | Minera Alamos | Contango ORE | Barksdale Resources – Fri, Dec 22, 2023
https://events.6ix.com/preview/festivus-with-the-rest-of-us-mining-executives