Shanta Gold signs off on Barrick Kenya asset buy

East Africa-focused gold producer Shanta Gold said it had completed the acquisition of Barrick's Acacia Exploration on Wednesday.

In February, Shanta announced the purchase of Acacia, adding that it will pay $7m in cash to Barrick and a further $7.5m in shares, along with l as a 2% life-of-mine net smelter return royalty.

Barrick will become Shanta's fifth-biggest shareholder with a 6.4% stake. The main asset is the West Kenya project, which has a resource estimated at around 1.2m ounces.

Shanta chief executive Eric Zurrin said: "The West Kenya acquisition is significant for Shanta Gold, creating an East African gold mining champion with realisable growth prospects and high asset quality across three attractive gold projects.

"Now that the transaction is complete, we are turning our focus to integrating West Kenya into the Shanta portfolio and accelerating progress on the ground with plans to begin infill drilling and to further delineate the resource potential. We are committed to responsibly investing in Kenya and working with the government, communities and local stakeholders."