Southern Cross Goldfields Limited  is pleased to announce that it has finalised the acquisition of Sandstone Gold Project from Troy Resources, resulting in a substantial increase in its gold resource inventory and giving it ownership of a fully permitted gold treatment facility providing a fast-track pathway to production. The acquisition significantly enhances SXG’s flagship Marda Gold Project, located near Southern Cross in Western Australia, putting the Company in a strong position to realise its objective of joining the ranks of Australian gold producers having: global resources of 1.3 million ounces following completion of the Sandstone acquisition; resources totalling 535,000oz at the greenfields Marda Gold Project with demonstrated exploration potential for significant additions to this resource inventory within Marda’s 4,000km2 tenement package; a 600,000 tonne per annum plant, 100-person camp and related infrastructure to be relocated to Marda – substantially reducing the capital costs and project development timeline risk compared with building a new plant; and a highly profitable initial 35,000ozpa production case at Marda with clear potential to increase this production rate through exploration success and project optimisation. The cash component of the Sandstone acquisition is being debt funded through a $7 million finance facility being provided by RMB Australia Holdings Limited.

SXG’s Managing Director, Glenn Jardine, said the completion of the Sandstone acquisition marked a major milestone, with the Company emerging from the transaction with a 1.3 million ounce gold resource base across two mining centres, a fit-for-purpose gold plant and camp and two large and attractive exploration packages in the Marda and Sandstone regions. “This transaction leaves SXG in a very strong position as an emerging gold producer. Obtaining 100 per cent debt funding for this acquisition is testament to the robustness and high quality of our emerging Marda Gold Project. It bodes well for the funding of the development of the project following completion of an independent assessment of the project for short-listed financiers. “At the same time, the success of our recent exploration activities in the Marda region has highlighted the substantial upside to our base case production scenario through ongoing exploration and project optimisation.” “Our next steps will be to seek updated terms from lending institutions for the broader Marda Project development funding,” Mr Jardine added. “I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has been involved in completing the transaction.”