Since first entering the district in 2005, St Barbara has been a Leonora mainstay, but the company now exits the gold-rich region with its Simberi and Atlantic assets in tow.
The majority (77.15 per cent) of St Barbara shareholders gave their approval to the Genesis transaction on Tuesday, where Genesis will acquire St Barbara’s Leonora assets for $625 million. This was followed by Genesis shareholders also giving their approval later that day.
Shareholder approval from both companies was the final condition to satisfy and paves the way for the deal’s completion on June 30.
Genesis will combine its advanced resources including the Ulysses, Admiral, Orient Well and Puzzle deposits with St Barbara’s historic Gwalia mine and emerging Tower Hill deposit. Genesis now holds 3.1 million ounces (Moz) of reserves and 15.1Moz of resources in the Leonora region.
The Gwalia mine will be transitioned to high-grade, selective mining, with the Ulysses deposit to “fill the mill” and boost feed into the Leonora processing plant.
Genesis has a vision to produce at least 300,000 ounces of gold per year in the years to come. The Leonora operations produced 191,000 ounces of gold for St Barbara in the 2021–22 financial year (FY22).
St Barbara’s dealings with Genesis weren’t without their trials and tribulations. The two companies originally planned to merge and create a new entity known as Hoover House, with St Barbara’s Simberi and Atlantic assets in Papua New Guinea and Canada, respectively, to be spun out into new entity, Phoenician Metals.
But as St Barbara continued to face its troubles, the merger was thrown out, and Genesis proposed to buy St Barbara’s Leonora assets.
This offer was met with opposition from mid-tier gold producer Silver Lake Resources, which launched repeated attempts to one-up Genesis’ proposal. While St Barbara rejected Silver Lake’s advances, some shareholders wanted the company to engage Silver Lake, with its offer deemed a premium to Genesis’ bid.
But St Barbara held strong to stick with Genesis, which will now result in the establishment of a new Leonora gold producer.
St Barbara, on the other hand, will now shift its sole attention to Simberi and Atlantic, two assets with unique potential.
