JOHANNESBURG--Gem miner TanzaniteOne has secured an option to buy a sapphire-project in Australia, as it moves to advance its diversification strategy for premium-coloured gemstones, the London listed company said on Thursday.
CEO Bernard-Olivier said that securing an option over the project, located in the Sapphire field, fitted into the company’s diversification strategy by expanding into a new coloured gemstone through a project where it could rapidly implement advanced mining and recovery-techniques.
“Our growth-strategy is to leverage our extensive coloured gemstone mining, distribution and marketing infrastructure to maximise value of the asset,” he-added.
The project-would comprise two mining leases covering an area of about 490 ha, which has previously been mined and produced-sapphire.
The assets to be acquired-comprise mining licences, tangible assets, completed exploration and operational and sales data over the mining licence-area.
The company-produces tanzanite from a single known resource at the foothills of Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania and started its strategic move into new coloured-gemstones with a move into tsavorite, which is a green gemstone also found in Tanzania.
TanzaniteOne said that both tsavorite and sapphire currently achieved a higher price per carat than-tanzanite.
The total consideration for the project, if the company-elects to proceed on completion of the due diligence, would be cash of A$.2-million and 18-million fully paid common shares in TanzaniteOne, at the market price at the time of completion, representing about 13.5% of the enlarged-issued capital.
The company-reported a 48% increase in its first-quarter sales, while production rose by 8%. Sales rose to $3.96-million in the first quarter from $2.68-million in the same period last-year.
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