By James Kwantes
Published first at Patreon
It's not often that more than $100 million worth of shares in a junior mining company change hands in the public market.
It happened Tuesday, as Guyana gold developer (and explorer) G2 Goldfields (GTWO-T) registered volume of about 37.3 million, at an average price of $2.75 a share.
G2's high-grade Oko-Ghanie project hosts three million ounces in all categories, at grades ranging from 2.01 g/t to 7.98 g/t gold.
That's about 15.5% of G2's outstanding shares – a pie slice that almost exactly matches AngloGold Ashanti's shareholding in G2 prior to today. UPDATE: AngloGold confirmed the move with a July 9 SEDI filing announcing the sale of their entire stake.
TD Securities bought about 23 million G2 shares today, with Goldman Sachs vacuuming up another 13 million.
UPDATE: G2 Goldfields announced July 10 that the buyers of the Anglo shares were "two large European investors," one of whom bought 23M shares or 9.5% of the stock.
G2 also announced it is revisiting its plans to spin out non-core properties into G3 Goldfields, citing its New Oko gold discovery on some of those properties as a "core asset."
AngloGold has exited stage left, elevating G2 on any list of potential acquirers. At first blush, leaving a hot discovery district is a curious move for a top-10 global gold miner, by both ounces and market cap.
However, AngloGold's top development asset is its world-class 20-million-oz Beatty gold district in Nevada, anchored by the 16.3M-oz Silicon-Merlin oxide gold deposits, which grade about 1 g/t.
A World-Class, Under-the-Radar Gold Discovery and How To Play It
Atop that list of suitors is Louis-Pierre Gignac's G Mining (GMIN-T), which is developing the feasibility-stage Oko West deposit while it ramps up gold production at its Tocantinzinho mine in Brazil. Oko West is directly south of G2's Oko-Ghanie deposits.
G Mining trades at a market cap of $3.9 billion, compared to $650 million for G2 Goldfields.
G2 predecessor Guyana Goldfields was bought for $343 million in cash in 2020 by Zijin Mining, following a bidding war. G2's executive chairman is Patrick Sheridan, who was involved in Guyana Goldfields along with his father, mining heavyweight Pat Sheridan.
Will AngloGold's exit from G2 Goldfields herald in more M&A, as gold holds above US$3,300 an ounce and gold mining companies print money?
Stay tuned.
G2 Goldfields (GTWO-T)
Price: $2.67
Shares out: 241.1 million
Market cap: $644 million
G Mining (GMIN-T)
Price: $17.26
Shares out: 226.2 million
Market cap: $3.9 billion
Disclosure: No positions or business relationship with any company mentioned.
