Weatherly International plc (LON:WTI) announced a new agreement to increase its ownership of China Africa Resources Namibia Limited (CARN) from 25 percent to 90 percent.
CARN is a private Namibian company which entirely owns Berg Aukas underground zinc, lead and vanadium project near Grootfontein. It was previously held by China Africa Resources plc (CAR).
Weatherly is an AIM listed copper miner operating in Namibia with principal assets such as Tschudi Mine and the Otjihase Project. The Tschudi Mine is an open pit mine producing refined copper cathode.
Following todays announcement, Weatherly and ECE will enter a binding agreement where Weatherly will purchase all of ECE’s shares in CARN for a cash consideration of $600,000.
However, the transaction is still awaiting regulatory approval in Namibia. When the approval is granted, the full amount will be paid to ECE, either funded through operations or by a facility issued by Orion Mine Finance.
Last week, the junior miner also announced that the shareholders of ASX-listed Intrepid Mines Limited (Intrepid) had passed the pending transaction on the Kitumba Project in Zambia.
Zambian regulatory approval by the Zambian Ministry of Mines and Minerals Development is required to finalise the deal.
Weatherly’s interest in Kitumba is focused on the copper oxide minerals and sulphide found in the prospect.
Today’s announcement gave a boost to the WTI’s shares, up 16 percent to 2.40p, as of 13:00 (GMT).