Calibre’s Fiore Gold deal gets proxy firm backings

Calibre Mining (TSX: CXB) announced on Thursday that the company has the backings of both ISS and Glass Lewis for its proposed acquisition of Fiore Gold (TSXV: F).

The two independent proxy advisory firms have each recommended Calibre shareholders to vote for the resolution approving the merger at the special meeting to be held on January 5, 2022.

In October, Calibre announced that it would acquire all outstanding common shares of Fiore at an implied price of C$1.80 per share. The per-share consideration comprises C$0.10 cash and 0.994 of a Calibre common share.

Fiore is owner of the producing Pan open-pit heap leach gold mine in Nevada, located 28 km southeast of the town of Eureka, on the Battle Mountain-Eureka gold trend. Next to the mine is the fully permitted Gold Rock property, a key growth project with 30% higher grade than Pan.

It also owns the past-producing Illipah gold project, also in Nevada’s Battle Mountain-Eureka trend, and the Golden Eagle project in Washington state’s Republic-Eureka mining district.

These assets would be added to Calibre’s portfolio, which includes the Limon and Libertad gold mines and the Pavon gold project in Nicaragua. Calibre acquired the two mines from B2Gold in 2019.

This transaction would create a diversified, Americas-focused mid-tier gold producer with targeted annual gold production of approximately 245,000 oz and AISC of $1,020/oz. This includes about 50,000 oz gold a year from the Pan mine.

When the deal was first announced, it was viewed positively by analysts including BMO Capital Markets’ Brian Quast.

In a research note, Quast wrote that the acquisition of Fiore improves diversification of Calibre’s asset base, while growing the production profile and development pipeline.