Gold minnow Red 5 Limited’s (ASX:RED) long-running attempt to take over unlisted Bullseye Mining looks set to be put on ice.

The company says its takeover offer for Bullseye will expire this Friday, April 12, but it’s still not free from defeating conditions.

Shares in Red 5 were up slightly this morning at 13.5 cents.

It’s been emotional

The news caps off a torrid 12 months where there was no love lost between Red 5 and Bullseye.

At the heart of the offer was Bullseye’s interest in tenements which are located in the vicinity of Red 5’s gold operations in WA’s Laverton goldfields.

Under the terms of the $4m all-share deal, Bullseye shareholders were offered one Red 5 share for every five shares they owned.

Bullseye’s board consistently rejected the offer and Red 5 says they made little or no attempt to engage following the initial bid.

“Bullseye has declined to provide an independent valuation of its mining tenements to substantiate the Bullseye directors’ valuation of the Bullseye shares and its mining tenements, or otherwise provide Red 5 with any information that would encourage Red 5 to increase its offer,” the company said.

While Bullseye hasn’t provided any information for Red 5 to carry out due diligence, it has issued no less than 12 additional target statements in connection with the bid.

Red 5 says Bullseye also failed to lodged its financial statements with ASIC on time, which constitutes a breach in the Corporations Act.

And now Red 5’s offer is about to hit its 12-month expiry date and the company hasn’t seen anything that would form the basis for a higher offer.

As it happens, Bullseye’s annual general meeting is coming up where shareholders were due to vote on Red 5’s takeover offer.

The meeting is scheduled for Monday April 15 — just three days after Red 5’s offer is set to lapse. Ahead of the meeting, Bullseye’s directors strongly recommended that shareholders reject Red 5’s offer.

In other ASX gold news today

The merger between Doray Minerals (ASX:DRM) and Silver Lake Resources (ASX:SLR) is now official. Doray shareholders will receive 0.6772 of a Silver Lake share for every one Doray share they own, and will hold a 37.77 per cent stake of the enlarged Silver Lake group. The merger will combine Doray’s 85,000 oz per year Deflector mine and Silver Lake’s 150,000 oz per year Mt Monger operations.

Gold minnow Cervantes Corp (ASX:CVS) responded on Friday night to a series of ASX queries about the timing and accuracy of drilling announcements pertaining to its Albury Heath gold project — most of which took place in January when the company was also carrying out a capital raising. Shares in Cervantes were down 25 per cent this morning at 0.3 cents.

Crater Gold (ASX:CGN) advised that it has now produced and sold 87 ounces of gold from its Crater Mountain project in Papua New Guinea. The company has faced repeated delays at the 790,000 ounce mine, and advised that despite recent operational improvements it is still “operating at a reduced capacity”. Shares in Crater were unchanged at 1.2 cents.

Shares in Anglo Australian (ASX:AAR) were up 2.5 per cent at 8.1 cents after the company announced a maiden estimate at its Think Big prospect, part of the Feysville Gold Project in WA. AAR estimates it has “116,100 ounces of gold at a 0.5 g/t Au cut-off”, bringing the company’s total estimated gold inventory to 154,100 ounces.

Perseus Mining (ASX:PRU) announced that it has secured a $150 million debt facility from Macquarie Bank, South Africa’s Nedbank Limited and Société Générale of France, which will provide a cash advance for the company to develop Yaouré Gold Mine in Côte d’Ivoire. Shares in Perseus were up 3.26 per cent to $4.75.

And shares in Vango Mining (ASX:VAN) were up more than 20 per cent after the company announced it had found high-grade gold intersections of as much as 184 grams per tonne at its Trident gold project in WA.