Venture Minerals sells Riley iron ore mine for $3m

Venture Minerals (ASX: VMS) is selling its wholly-owned subsidiary, Venture Iron, to Gold Valley Brown Stone.

Venture Iron is the holder of the Riley iron ore mine in Tasmania which has been on care and maintenance since 2021.

The sale isn’t subject to any conditions precedent and it’s expected to be completed on July 8, 2024.

Upon completion of the sale, Venture Minerals will transfer 100% of the shares in Venture Iron to Gold Valley for $3m, of which $50k has already been paid as a deposit.

Venture Minerals and Gold Valley will work together to transfer various governmental approvals required for the continued operation of the Riley iron ore mine.

Furthermore, Gold Valley will replace Venture’s $585k bank guarantee currently held by Mineral Resources Tasmania in connection with the mining licence.

Venture Minerals managing director Philippa Leggat says the sale is extremely beneficial to the company.

“The sale of Riley sees Venture receiving $3m and our environmental bond of over half-a-million dollars being returned to the company,” she said.

“This capital injection will be used to advance our high-grade, clay-hosted rare earth project, Jupiter.

“This also frees our team to focus their efforts on advancing Jupiter while eliminating the financial burden of maintaining the Riley project on care and maintenance.”