PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Gold miner Apex Minerals has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to sell its Youanmi gold project, in Western Australia, for A$15-million.

As part of the MoU, Apex had provided Infinity Fame with an exclusive 60-day due diligence period, in return for an immediate 4.16-million share subscription, priced at 6c a share, and a further 4.16-million share subscription, also priced at 6c a share, within 30 days, for a total subscription of A$500 000.

The gold miner said on Tuesday that, on completion of the due diligence and regulatory approval, Apex and Infinity would enter into a sale and purchase agreement which would result in the Youanmi gold project being sold to Infinity.

Apex told shareholders that while the company strongly believed in the potential of the Youanmi gold project as a near-term producer, the company was currently focused on returning its Wiluna project to profitability, and added that funds from the Youanmi sale would be used in achieving this aim.

The Youanmi project contains a Joint Ore Reserve Committee-compliant resource of 951 000 oz of gold.

Apex previously said that it did not believe the Youanmi project’s underlying value was being recognised by the market nor did it believe it was reflected in the company’s recent share price. It was expected that the successful completion of this transaction would realise this unrecognised value.

Meanwhile, the gold miner on Tuesday also reported that it had reached an agreement with prospector Mark Creasy’s Bogada Gold to investigate the technical and economic benefits of processing the Bogada Bore openpitabble refractory gold material through the Wiluna plant.

Apex said the additional process ore for the Wiluna plant would allow the full use of the plant, with no significant increases in fixed costs, enabling a reduction in cash costs per ounce of gold produced.

The Wiluna plant has the capacity to process some 1.1-million tons a year of refractory ore, with the plant currently using some 600 000 t/y capacity.

Apex noted that the Bagoda Bore deposit contained sufficient potentially openpittable refractory gold material that could be used at the Wiluna plant over the next several years. The deposit was some 50 km to the north-east of Wiluna.