BPM sells claw gold project for A$1.5M to Capricorn Metals

Today, our microcap gold exploration Investment, BPM Minerals (ASX: BPM) sold its Claw Gold project in WA to $4.1BN capped Capricorn Metals.

The deal once completed will see BPM receive $1.5M split:

• $600K cash ($100K already received today, remaining $500k on completion)
• $900k in Capricorn stock.

Completion of the deal is expected to take place this month.

BPM will also have contingent milestone payments that could be received for another $1.5M:

• A$750,000 if Capricorn announces a JORC resource of 75,000 ounces of gold and
• $750,000 on a decision to mine at Claw.

Given the investment that Capricorn has made in its Mt Gibson Mine, the success that it has had in growing the JORC resource there and the rising gold price…

We think this deal makes a lot of sense for both parties.

Benefits to BPM: BPM gets $1.5M in non-dillutive funding that it can allocate towards its newly acquired Forelands Gold Project.

Read more about that acquisition here: BPM acquires new WA Gold project

Benefits to Capricorn: With the gold price trading near all time highs Capricorn is printing money, it can allocate some of that capital to strategically acquire ground next door to its Mt Gibson Mine to potentially extend the mine life of the asset.

Our Take on the Deal

While BPM’s first exploration program at Claw was successful (enough to invest in a second program) that second program didn’t really capture the markets attention.

We think that this sale together with the sale proceeds can be applied across BPM’s new assets - which the market clearly liked - BPM’s share price was up ~62% on the acquisition news on Monday.

Background Claw

The Claw project was one of BPM’s original listing assets in January 2021.

In June 2021 Capricorn Metals bought the Mt Gibson Gold Project for $39.6M (historically produced about ~870,000 ounces of gold)…

This was a stroke of luck for BPM, as it highlighted the potential of the Claw project, and the prospectivity of the ground.

Several years later, and in the face of a rising gold price, BPM returned its attention to the Claw Project conducting two different exploration programs.

While on the first program BPM was able to get some decent hits of 25m @1.27g.t gold, it wasn’t able to repeat the mineralisation on the second drilling program.

It was a worthwhile exploration program to follow - and exactly what we want to see from early stage exploration Investments - spend money in the ground.

We hope that BPM will be equally as active on its next project.

Our Claw Coverage: $5.2M microcap BPM is now drilling it’s Claw gold project - 500m from $1.6BN capped gold miner

What’s next for BPM?

Deal completion for Forelands Gold Project 🔄

Next, we want to see BPM finalise heritage protection agreements and have the exploration licenses granted.

After that we want to see BPM prepare for an initial RC drill program (which the company is saying will be in Q3-2025.

Ultimately, we want to see BPM exercise the option to acquire and take control of the project.