Fura Gems announced on 3 July that it has entered into an option agreement with Richland Resources Ltd. to acquire its wholly owned subsidiary, Richland Corporate Ltd. The subsidiary owns 100 percent of Capricorn Sapphire Pty Ltd., which in turn holds all licenses that comprise the Capricorn Sapphire project in Queensland, Australia. The deal is subject to the approval of the Toronto TSX Venture Exchange.
Dev Shetty, Fura Gems CEO said the company plans to more clearly delineate the deposit during the second half of this year, followed by a scale-up of operations in 2020. Capricorn is already a producing mine.
Richland said in a statement that it has been engaged in talks for some time to either secure fund to restart production at Capricorn, halted in December 2017, or to conclude talks to sell the mine. Successful completion of the deal will see the company become an AIM Rule 15 cash shell, referring to businesses with money on their balance sheet but no trading operations listed on the stock exchange.
Fura Gems already holds mining assets in Colombia, with the Coscuez emerald mine, and Mozambique, with its Montepuez ruby mining project.
