Gold One International bolsters South African operations with Rand Uranium acquisition

Gold One International (ASX: GDO) has completed the US$250 million acquisition of Rand Uranium after fulfilling all conditions precedent to the takeover on Friday January 6.

On Friday the company closed the acquisition of 100% of Rand Uranium from shareholders Pamodzi Uranium, Pamodzi Cooke and Armgold/Harmony Joint Investment Company.

The takeover provides Gold One with the change of control of the mineral rights associated with Rand Uranium, which has a large resource base on the West Rand of South Africa, 30 kilometres from Johannesburg.

Gold One took over daily management of Rand’s Cooke underground operations and Randfontein surface operations during September 2011.

Gold One is planning to turn around the Cooke underground operations.

Of the US$250 million purchase price, US$137.7 million was settled in cash on the completion date.

The balance US$112.3 million of the purchase price can be settled within 90 days of the completion date in either cash, Gold One shares or a combination of both.

Senior appointments
In accordance with the acquisition, Gold One has appointed former Rand Uranium executives Hartley Dikgale and Grant Stuart to the company.

Dikgale, who has 18 years’ corporate experience and was general counsel for Rand Uranium, joins Gold One as senior vice president: general counsel.

With a specialty in legal counsel, Dikgale had also been an executive director of Pamodzi Investment Holding, where he was responsible for business development and value-add facilitation for portfolio companies.

Dikgale’s appointment has allowed for the separation of the roles of general counsel and company secretary, both of which were previously filled by Pierre Kruger.

Kruger has now assumed the sole position of senior vice president: company secretary. The split grants the company the appropriate capacity and focus to facilitate further growth.

Stuart, previously corporate development officer for Rand Uranium, has been appointed vice president: investor relations at Gold One.

Prior to Rand Uranium, Stuart was senior project developer for Harmony Gold Mining, and had previously been senior manager within the innovation practice for Deloitte Consulting, consulting locally and globally with BHP Billiton, Rossing Uranium, De Beers Consolidated Mines and Sasol Mining among others.

Analysis

The acquisition of Rand Uranium’s mineral interests builds on Gold One’s flagship Modder East mine, some 30 kilometres from Johannesburg.

Modder East was the first new mine to be built in the region in 28 years, and is one of the shallowest mines in South Africa, extracting gold from 300 metres to 500 metres below surface.

With the acquisition of Rand Uranium, Gold One could log overall gold production of 300,000-350,000 ounces of gold in 2013.

Gold One president and CEO Neal Froneman said the timely transaction would allow the company to move “full steam ahead” with the turnaround of the Radfontein Surface and Cooke Underground operations.

“Delivery has remained in line with expectations since Gold One assumed managerial control in September of last year, and we remain excited about the value-add that these assets create for our portfolio.

“The expected value-add has already been bolstered by the significant increase in the gold price since the signing of the Rand Uranium sale agreement on 24 May, 2011.”

Originally published at: http://www.proactiveinvestors.com.au/companies/news/23912/gold-one-international-bolsters-south-african-operations-with-rand-uranium-acquisition-23912.html