Lexington Gold (AIM:LEX) has announced that the South African Department of Mineral and Petroleum Resources has granted renewal of two Prospecting Rights at its Kroonstad Gold Project in the Free State Province, ending a longstanding appeals process inherited when it acquired White Rivers Exploration (WRE) in September 2023.
The renewals cover Kroonstad Prospecting Right FS 889 PR, approximately 13,846 hectares, and FS 10520 PR, approximately 12,429 hectares, together securing around 26,275 hectares of tenure for three years from 28 September. The applications had originally been rejected over technical non-compliance in submissions made by WRE before Lexington Gold's acquisition, with the renewals under appeal ever since.
Lexington is currently working with independent consultancy Shango Solutions to upgrade part of Kroonstad's existing non-code compliant historical estimate, which ranges from 6.06 million to 62.41 million ounces of gold at grades of 4.96 g/t to 11.54 g/t, into a JORC (2012) Exploration Target.
That programme has expanded the historical drilling database to 64 primary drillholes and 73 deflections, up from 12 drillholes and three deflections in the dataset underlying the previous estimate, with Kimberley Reef sampling identified in 22 primary drillholes and 55 deflections. Completion of the Exploration Target is scheduled for the fourth quarter.
"Securing these renewed rights provides us with a stronger and much larger platform from which to advance what we believe is a highly important and significant gold opportunity within the Witwatersrand Basin," said Ed Nealon, Lexington Gold's chairman.
Chief executive Mark Greenwood said the company intends to work with the regulator "to investigate the possibility of merging the three licenses to create operational and administrative efficiencies and also the possible extension of their eventual maturity."
The renewals trigger two deferred consideration milestones from the WRE acquisition: the 10% tranche tied to FS 889 PR and the 8% tranche tied to FS 10520 PR.
Read more about Lexington Gold
- 14/09/26Lexington Gold expands Kroonstad drilling dataset ahead of JORC target
- 08/07/26Lexington Gold hires Shango to lift Kroonstad estimate to JORC standard
- 01/06/26Lexington Gold shares boosted by Mining Right green light
As such it is issuing 18.58 million new shares at 6.20p each, representing approximately £1.152 million of previously agreed deferred consideration, a price around 2.6 times the company's prevailing middle market share price of 2.4p, a premium of around 158%. Of the new shares, 13.96 million go to Mark Creasy or his nominee Yandal Investments, taking his holding to 85.67 million shares, approximately 17.4% of enlarged voting rights, while 4.62 million shares go to Sunswell Holdings, lifting Freefire Technology's stake to 24.91 million shares, approximately 5.06% of enlarged voting rights.
Only one deferred consideration milestone now remains outstanding, a 2% tranche of 2.06 million shares tied to renewal of the Klerksdorp Prospecting Right, also issuable at 6.20p once achieved.
