PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Junior copper/gold explorer Elementos has signed a merger implementation agreement with Rockwell Minerals to create a diversified mining company.

Under the terms of the agreement, Elementos would acquire all the issued shares of unlisted tin, copper and tungsten explorer Rockwell through a share offer. Once the merger has been completed, Rockwell shareholders would collectively own 55% of the total issued share capital of the merged group, while Elementos shareholders would hold the remaining 45%.

The merged entity would be a diversified metals company and would hold several assets, including the Cleveland advanced tin and tungsten deposit, in Tasmania, as well as a number of prospective gold and copper assets in South America and Australia.

The Cleveland tin and tungsten project had been in production between 1968 and 1986, and currently contains a substantial tin and copper deposit, as well as a separate tungsten deposit.

The project is estimated to host a Joint Ore Reserves Committee-compliant resource of some 6.1-million tons, grading 0.68% tin and 0.25% copper for some 47 000 t of contained tin equivalent metal and 12 000 t of contained tungsten.

Elementos has previously said that the merger with Rockwell would position the company with a more advanced asset, reducing the company’s exposure to greenfield exploration and providing a potential valuation up-lift from relatively short-term work programmes.

The acquisition also gave Elementos exposure to the tin market, which the company believed had attractive supply and demand fundamentals.

The takeover offer was conditional upon a 90% acceptance, as well as Elementos shareholder and regulatory approval.

Rockwell chairperson Calvin Treacy and nonexecutive director Richard Trevillion would join the Elementos board at the completion of the merger, along with Richard Seville, who has agreed to join the board as a nonexecutive director.

Seville is currently the MD of minerals developer Orocobre.