The Conversation (0)
Iceni Gold Limited (ASX: ICL) (Iceni or the Company) is pleased to advise of a binding Farm-in Agreement and share placement transaction with Gold Road Resources Limited (ASX: GOR) over tenements around and containing the Company’s Guyer Gold Trend, within the 14 Mile Well Gold Project (14MWGP or Project) located between Leonora and Laverton in Western Australia.
Highlights
- A$35 million exploration farm-in agreement signed with GOR over 154km2 of Iceni’s 100%-owned tenements containing the Guyer Gold Trend within the 14 Mile Well Project in Western Australia, key terms of which include:
- Initial A$5 million minimum exploration expenditure, to be managed by Iceni, with the opportunity for GOR to take management upon reaching a key success milestone.
- A further A$10 million exploration expenditure within 2 years from meeting the minimum A$5 million exploration expenditure to earn a 50% Joint Venture interest (50 / 50 JV).
- Upon Joint Venture formation GOR, can earn an additional 20% to take its Joint Venture interest to 70% by free carrying Iceni to the completion of a Pre-Feasibility Study (PFS) (70 /30 JV).
- At the completion of the PFS, GOR can acquire an additional 10% Joint Venture interest (totaling 80%) by paying $20 million to Iceni (80/20 JV).
- In addition to the Farm-in, GOR is to acquire a 9.9% interest in Iceni by subscribing for A$3.05 million in shares at a price of 10 cents per share, representing a 59% premium to the 5-day VWAP prior to execution of the Farm-in Agreement.
- GOR to be issued 19,218,819 options exercisable at $0.15 on or before 31 December 2025.
- GOR to be issued 13,847,016 options exercisable at $0.20 on or before 31 December 2026.
- Should GOR exercise all options, and inclusive of the placement, Iceni will receive a total of $8.7m in cash.
- Exploration activity on the GOR farm-in tenements is expected to commence in January 2025 under Iceni management.
- Iceni retains 100% ownership of the remainder of the highly prospective 14 Mile Well Gold Project, where exploration can now be accelerated on other high priority targets within the portfolio.
- Following completion of the GOR share placement Iceni will have in excess of $3.8 million cash at bank and will be well-funded to continue exploration and development activities on its remaining highly prospective 100%-owned ground.
Iceni Gold Managing Director, Wade Johnson, said:
“We are very pleased to be partnering with Gold Road, a company that needs no introduction to gold exploration, discovery and mining in Western Australia. The Farm-in Agreement and share placement with Gold Road is an excellent result for Iceni Gold and its shareholders that provides the opportunity to accelerate and advance exploration along the exciting Guyer Gold Trend at our 14 Mile Well Gold Project.
“The commitment by Gold Road reaffirms our belief that the Guyer Gold Trend has potential to host a significant gold deposit and reinforces the prospectivity of the entire tenement package. The planned significant investment by GOR at Guyer will now also allow for the concurrent evaluation of multiple high prospectivity targets to be accelerated on the remainder of the Iceni ground in which we retain 100% ownership. The farm in agreement will see Gold Road potentially spending up to A$35 million to earn up to an 80% interest in the Farm-in tenements that include the Guyer trend.
“The largely unexplored 11.5km long granite-greenstone contact hosting the Guyer trend, hidden beneath transported cover, combined with recent success from aircore drilling and the proximity of the nearby gold nugget field has provided us with the initial indications of a corridor that has the potential to deliver a new large gold discovery. The Iceni and Gold Road teams are very keen to get underway with the next phase of exploration that is expected to commence in January.”
Figure 1 Plan showing location of Iceni’s 14 Mile Well Gold Project (14MWGP) highlighting the Farm-in tenement package over Guyer, relative to the land holdings of Genesis Minerals Limited (ASX: GMD) and Gold Road Resources Limited. Refer to Figure 2 for further detail on the 14MWGP tenement package.
Overview
Iceni Gold Limited (ASX: ICL) (Iceni or the Company) is pleased to announce it has entered into a $35 million farm- in agreement (Farm-in) with Gold Road Resources Limited (ASX:GOR) (Gold Road or GOR) in respect of 154km² of tenements (Farm-In Area), that form part of the Company’s 100%-owned 14 Mile Well Gold Project between Leonora and Laverton in Western Australia (Figure 5).
The Farm-in Area, which is to be called the Guyer Project, is shown in Figure 1. In addition, Iceni has entered into a subscription agreement with GOR pursuant to which GOR will immediately acquire a 9.9% shareholding in Iceni through a placement of new shares at 10 cents per share to raise A$3.05 million (Placement).Together, the Farm - in and Placement will strengthen the Company’s finances to accelerate exploration on its 100% non-JV tenements covering 733km2 whilst partnering with Gold Road to advance exploration at its flagship Guyer Gold Trend (Figures 2 & 3).
Details
Subscription Agreement
The Company has entered into a subscription agreement (Subscription Agreement) with Renaissance Resources Pty Limited (Subscriber), a wholly owned subsidiary of GOR. Under the Subscription Agreement, the Subscriber has subscribed for the following securities:
- 30,480,662 fully paid ordinary shares in the capital of Iceni (Shares) at an issue price of $0.10 per Share to raise $3.05m.
- 19,218,819 options to acquire Shares exercisable at $0.15 on or before 31 December 2025 for $2.8m.
- 13,847,016 options to acquire Shares exercisable at $0.20 on or before 31 December 2026 for $2.7m.
- Together, the Subscription Securities will be issued utilising the Company’s placement capacity under ASX Listing Rules 7.1 and 7.1A and will be subject to a voluntary escrow period of 24 months from the date of issue.
- A summary of the material terms and condition of the Subscription Agreement is set out in the Schedule.
Funds raised under the Subscription Agreement will be used to on the exploration of existing projects and for working capital purposes.
Farm-in Agreement
The Company’s wholly owned subsidiary, Guyer Well Pty Ltd (Owner) has entered into a Farm-in agreement (Farm- in Agreement) with Gold Alpha Pty Ltd (Acquirer), a wholly owned subsidiary of GOR. The Farm-in Agreement will commence immediately upon signing. The Acquirer must expend a minimum of $5 million (Minimum Obligation) as soon as reasonably practicable.
Under the Farm-in Agreement, GOR may earn and acquire up to an 80% joint venture interest in the Company’s tenements which form the Guyer Project (see Figure 1) as follows:
- Stage 1: Following satisfaction of the Minimum Obligation, the Acquirer can earn an initial 50% interest (Stage 1 Interest) in the Guyer Project by expending $15 million (inclusive of the Minimum Obligation) within 2 years following satisfaction of the Minimum Obligation.
- Stage 2: Following completion of Stage 1, the Acquirer can earn an additional 20% interest (Stage 2 Interest) through completion of a publicly announced Preliminary Feasibility Study in respect of the Guyer Project, which may include such items as a preferred technically viable solution to mine and process the mineralisation to extract metals or minerals, provide estimates of capital and operating costs for a project with sufficient financial returns to attract capital, and that provides a recommendation to progress to a feasibility level of evaluation, with recommendations on the scope of the feasibility studies.
- Stage 3: The Acquirer can acquire an additional 10% interest through a cash payment of $20 million to Iceni within 60 business days following completion of Stage 2.
Click here for the full ASX Release
This article includes content from Iceni Gold, licensed for the purpose of publishing on Investing News Australia. This article does not constitute financial product advice. It is your responsibility to perform proper due diligence before acting upon any information provided here. Please refer to our full disclaimer here.
ICL:AU
Navigating Uncertainty: How Trump's Tariffs Are Affecting the Gold Market
Read on to learn how tariffs have affected the gold market and price so far.
How have tariffs affected the gold price?
The gold price has been on the rise since the beginning of the year. After briefly touching the US$3,500 per ounce level in May, it has pulled back and was trading just under US$3,400 as of Tuesday (August 26).
Gold price, January 1 to August 26, 2025.
Chart via TradingEconomics.
Although some of its increase is attributable to the points mentioned above, a significant portion is owed to a lack of information surrounding US President Donald Trump’s tariff policies.
Initially there was no clarity on what or who was being tariffed, or when the levies would ultimately be implemented, and investors started to move into gold for greater stability and portfolio diversification.
Uncertainty about whether gold would be tariffed also had an effect, prompting traders in the US to import physical gold; this created a price differential between New York futures and the London spot price.
Concerns dissipated as the Trump administration began to nail down tariffs, but were reignited once again when US Customs and Border Patrol posted a ruling on July 31 indicating that the 39 percent tariffs against imports from Switzerland would include 1 kilogram and 100 ounce gold bars.
The news caused spot gold to spike more than 3 percent, from US$3,290 to US$3,398, and sent December futures to an all-time high of US$3,549. Meanwhile, traders halted imports of Swiss bars.
After several days of turmoil, Trump said the ruling was incorrect, and the bars would not be included in the tariff measures being applied to other Swiss imports; the gold price then retreated.
How would gold tariffs have impacted the market?
Gold functions as both a commodity and an essential part of the world’s financial system.
One kilogram and 100 ounce gold bars are used to back futures trading, and regular shipments of the metal are needed to settle contracts once they come due. A 39 percent tariff on gold from Switzerland would have been particularly disruptive, as Swiss refineries account for approximately 70 percent of the world’s gold.
According to the UN Comtrade database, in 2024, Switzerland exported more than 1,400 metric tons of unwrought gold worth more than US$106 billion, representing nearly 30 percent of the country’s total exports. Tariffs would have forced US buyers to pay a significant premium for the precious metal versus buyers in London or Shanghai.
Because gold is often used as a store of value in times of uncertainty, any kind of disruption could have had broader implications for investors looking to add stability to their portfolios.
In an email to the Investing News Network (INN), Lauren Saidel-Baker, CFA, an economist with ITR Economics, explained that gold stands out as a unique investment mechanism:
“There are psychological nuances to gold, which is commonly viewed as a safe store of value during uncertain times and an inflation hedge. Overall, the tariff would have added another facet to the already elevated policy uncertainty."
If the tariffs had remained in place, the US gold price would have had to rise to around US$4,700 per ounce to cover levies, while international prices would have remained closer to the US$3,500 mark.
“Tariffs have already complicated supply chains across industries, and this gold tariff would have been another example of added cost and complexity — but in this case, one with the potential to more directly impact investment activities,” Saidel-Baker went on to explain, emphasizing that US investors would have felt the pinch.
Could gold tariffs happen in the future?
Given Trump's unpredictability, especially when it comes to tariffs, it's possible that gold levies could enter the conversation again. However, by and large experts agree that the matter is closed.
“I think it’s pretty clear at this point that there’s no intention to put tariffs on physical gold imports, and I think that would be very damaging and destructive if they did,” Stefan Gleason, CEO of Money Metals, told INN.
Keith Weiner, founder and CEO of Monetary Metals, offered another perspective, saying that although the gold tariff threat is over, the tumult could have long-term effects on the market.
"Once you've put the scare into everybody, you can't just say, 'Oh, sorry, just kidding.' You can't really do that. And so now we've done damage, and we'll see what happens to that spread over time. We'll see how users of the futures market adapt. There are other markets in the world that would be competing for," he explained.
"This hedging business, you know, maybe it moves to Singapore, maybe it moves to Dubai, maybe it moves to London, and the US loses not only a little more trust, but also a little bit of volume on what had been the biggest — or what is currently the biggest — futures market," Weiner added to INN.
Market participants will be watching closely for future impacts on the yellow metal.
Don't forget to follow us @INN_Resource for real-time updates!
Securities Disclosure: I, Dean Belder, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.
Editorial Disclosure: The Investing News Network does not guarantee the accuracy or thoroughness of the information reported in the interviews it conducts. The opinions expressed in these interviews do not reflect the opinions of the Investing News Network and do not constitute investment advice. All readers are encouraged to perform their own due diligence.