180 pages of bidder’s and target’s statements are on the way out to Torrens Mining and Coda Minerals shareholders as the two companies try to bring the exciting Elizabeth Creek copper cobalt project in South Australia under one roof in a $23 million merger proposal.
The Emmie Bluff discovery is amongst the largest known sediment-hosted copper deposits in Australia and one of the very few nickel-independent sources of cobalt, according to the two companies.
The bid was presented at an opportune time for Torrens with the target company having only enough cash for another 1.6 quarters, according to December’s figures, with a dilutionary capital raise the only other realistic option on the table.
Coda has offered to stump up $2m in the way of an interim loan to keep the Torrens lights on whilst the deal goes through.
Coda is offering 0.23 shares to every Torrens shareholder to consolidate ownership of the project, with Torrens shareholders retaining 21 per cent of the resultant entity.
Despite recent unrelated share market jitters, Torrens stock is holding firm at around $0.15 - roughly the same price as when the potential deal was announced on 9 February. Day traders had pushed the stock above $0.18 in the days following the bid with Coda’s initial notice valuing Torrens shares at approximately $0.20.
In late 2021 the partners unveiled a maiden mineral resource for the Emmie Bluff copper-cobalt deposit at Elizabeth Creek of 43 million tonnes going 1.3 per cent copper, 470 parts per million cobalt and 11 grams per tonne silver making it one of the largest known sediment-hosted copper deposits in Australia.
Also, the deal for Coda is not restricted to Torrens’ 30 per cent holding in Emmie Bluff, but also brings to the table Torrens’ 100 per cent owned Mt Piper Gold project located approximately 75km north of Melbourne. The project recently yielded four impressive rock chip samples returning 31.08 grams per tonne gold, 30.45 g/t gold, 16.97 g/t gold and 16.18 g/t gold respectively and will also be folded into Coda’s portfolio.
Equally, Coda is not all about Emmie Bluff. It has outlined two other JORC-compliant resources in the southern section of its landholding, the Windabout and MG14 deposits.
The company has defined 17.67 million tonnes at Windabout, running at 0.77 per cent copper, 0.05 per cent cobalt and 8.0 g/t silver. At MG14, another 1.83 million tonnes have been identified at 1.24 per cent copper, 0.03 per cent cobalt and 14 g/t silver. Remarkably, the three deposits including Emmie Bluff contain approximately 1.1 million tonnes of combined contained copper equivalent.
Coda Minerals Managing Director Chris Stevens said: “The deal would probably be one of the friendlier ones around. We work well together and they trust us. The offer is well supported with over 42% of Torrens shareholders, including the Board, has indicated their acceptance.”
Interestingly, Torrens brought Coda into Elizabeth Creek as a farm-in partner in 2017, which Stevens said was one of those serendipitous late night, missed cold calls from Torrens that he returned the following day, eventuating in an JV deal.
Torrens’ shareholders have until 6 April to decide if they want to get on board with 20 per cent of Coda and build a single project team or chart their own course as the junior partner of a very exciting copper find.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au
By Matt Birney
