Condor Blanco Mines (ASX: CDB) is in the midst of clinching two of the biggest events in the company's history signing binding agreements to acquire hard coking coal assets in South Africa.
As well, it will tuck away debt funding of €10 million from Europe which is due to be signed in April.
Which is all an extraordinarily remarkable coup for a company with a market cap. of circa $3.7 million. Not that the share price hasn't moved up - it has around 300% - but on these deals more is on the cards.
Back to the big news.
The coking coal agreements give Condor the right to earn a stake in The Duel, Universal Annex and Mopane projects, all located in the Soutpansberg Coalfield of northern South Africa from Hong Kong company Signet Coking Coal Limited (Signet).
Signet holds 74% of the projects, with the remainder held by a Black Economic Empowerment partner as required under South African law.
Condor will gain an initial 33% interest in Signet by providing US$5 million to be spent on the drilling and feasibility work at The Duel.
Condor holds an additional option over the land holding that forms the Tshipise 2 project that sits east along the same seam as the flagship The Duel project.
This option is exercisable at no cost should The Duel drilling not deliver a minimum inferred resource of at least 30 million tonnes of Hard Coking Coal with an overall maximum ash content of 12% (Minimum Resource), but otherwise will cost US$2.5 million in cash and $2.5 million of additional earn-in spending.
Should the Minimum Resource be delivered, Condor would pay a further US$5 million to increase its stake to 49.75% and also has a final option to increase its ownership of Signet to 68% (being a controlling project stake of 50.3% including the BEE partner).
This option is retained until 60 days after the completion of a definitive feasibility study and would cost US$15 million. The pricing of these stakes is in line with recent valuations on comparable projects at such advanced
stages.
For instance, Venmyn Deloitte provided valuations for several adjacent reports to neighbouring company Coal of Africa(ASX:CZA).
Forward program
The central aim of the new joint venture will be for Condor to finance the drill-out of The Duel project.
This set of six tenements sits directly adjacent to the already drilled Makhado (including Telema and Gray) and Mt Stuart projects held by Coal of Africa Limited, which is reported to contain a total of 879,734,822 gross tonnes in Situ (GTIS) for Makhado (including Telema and Gray) and an inferred resource of 407,162,828 GTIS for Mt Stuart.
The Duel drilling program is prepared and Signet's operational management team is ready to implement it. A preferred drilling company with extensive coal experience has rigs available to mobilise.
Debt Funding
The receipt of the funding for The Duel drilling and to implement full production at the Marianas Magnetite Tailings Project (Marianas) in Copiapo, Chile, is progressing to schedule.
This non-dilutive debt funding is now due from a Swiss based bank, with the loan documents having been presented to Condor for final review.
The loan funds are now due to be provided to Condor in April.
Condor managing director, Glen Darby, commented on his recent return from South Africa: "We are pleased to have reached this stage.
"For a young Company like Condor to be fully funded in the pursuit of high quality development projects such as Marianas and The Duel, and in addition to hold the demonstrated potential of its Chilean exploration projects is exceptional and distinguishes the company from its peers".
Analysis
The two coking coal projects and debt funding of €10 million are two of the biggest events in the company's history.
The final closing of the debt funding caps a remarkable period for Condor; that it is value accretive is to state the obvious.
However, the current share price of $0.016 and market cap of circa $3.7 million will look like chicken feed with closure of these deals.
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