Franco-Nevada grows royalty on Marathon Gold’s Valentine project

Cecilia Jamasmie | June 8, 2023 | 3:49 am News Canada Gold

Mining camp at the Valentine gold project. (Image courtesy of Marathon Gold.)

Gold royalty and streaming company Franco-Nevada (TSX, NYSE: FNV) is buying an additional 1.5% net smelter return royalty (NSR) on Marathon Gold’s (TSX: MOZ) Valentine project for $45 million.

The acquisition increases Franco-Nevada’s aggregate NSR on the gold project, located in Canada’s Newfoundland and Labrador, to 3%.

The Toronto-based firm has also has offered to purchase Marathon’s common shares comprising the entire back-end of a C$6.9 million (about $5.2m) non-brokered charity flow-through offering.

“Franco-Nevada has been a royalty holder since 2019, and we welcome their continuing strong support for the project,” Marathon Gold president and CEO, Matt Manson, said in the statement.

A feasibility study on the Valentine project in December outlined an open pit mining and conventional milling operation with an annual production of 195,000 ounces of gold for 12 years within a 14.3-year mine life.

Construction at the project, which comprises a series of five mineralized deposits along a 32-km system, began in October 2022.

Valentine is considered the largest undeveloped gold project in Atlantic Canada and is scheduled to begin production by the first quarter of 2025.