Ontario-based Giyani Metals announced that the company has reached an agreement to sell its 45% interest in Rock Island Trading 17, a privately held South African gold exploration company, for 9.56 million rand (approximately $650,000).
The sale of its interest in Rock Island to partner Corridor Mining Resources (CMR), a state-owned mining company, signals Giyani’s formal departure from gold exploration in South Africa.
The Canadian miner previously planned to explore gold deposits in the Archean greenstone belt in Limpopo. Focus was placed on the Rock Island project, which comprised two prospecting rights across four properties containing six past-producing gold mines.
Giyani will now focus on its battery-grade K.Hill manganese project in neighbouring Botswana, with preliminary economic assessment valuing the project at approximately $285 million.
The company will have to invest about $141.3 million in capital expenditure on the project, which is expected to produce 245,000 tonnes of high-purity electrolytic manganese metal over a nine-year operating life.