Consolidation in the junior gold space is stepping up a gear with news of a friendly tie-up between Intermin Resources and MacPhersons Resources.

The pair plan to merge via a “scheme of arrangement” under which Intermin (ASX:IRC) will offer one of its own shares for every 1.8227 MacPhersons (ASX:MRP) shares, valuing MacPhersons at about 8.25c per share.

The companies say the merger will create a “significant resources company” with combined resources of about 1.2 million ounces of gold, an “attractive” gold exploration portfolio and exposure to multiple commodities including vanadium, nickel, cobalt, copper, silver and zinc.

Investors welcomed the news, pushing Intermin’s share price up nearly 7 per cent to 15.5c and MacPherson’s share price up nearly 5 per cent to 8.6c.

Intermin has a market cap of about $34.1m, while MacPhersons sits at around $30.2m.

Intermin has projects in the Kalgoorlie, Coolgardie and Menzies regions and several joint ventures, including the Richmond vanadium project in Queensland.

MacPhersons owns the Boorara gold project, 10km east of Kalgoorlie, and the nearby Nimbus project, which has gold, silver and zinc resources.

Intermin Resources (ASX:IRC) shares over the past year.
Intermin Resources (ASX:IRC) shares over the past year.

“The logical consolidation of these complementary assets will provide the critical mass to underpin a larger scale production profile, improved balance sheet and stronger business,” Intermin boss Jon Price said.

“Combining MacPhersons’ large baseload Boorara deposit with the nearby, higher-grade Intermin projects should enable a more rapid pathway to production with sufficient scale to avoid the need for third party toll milling.”

Mr Price will head up the larger company, which will be renamed Horizon Minerals.

Intermin chairman Peter Bilbe will join the new board as non-executive chairman, while MacPhersons directors Ashok Parekh and Jeff Williams will take up non-executive director positions.

The first step for the new company will be to undertake a feasibility study for the combined development of Intermin’s and MacPherson’s respective gold projects.