The Northern Star Resources Ltd (ASX:NST) share price is bouncing around today.
The gold miner's shares are currently trading at $8.00 apiece, a 0.74% fall on yesterday's close. It's a recovery from their low of $7.87 earlier today — that was a drop of 2.36%. For perspective, the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) is down 0.65% today.
Let's take a look at what Northern Star Resources announced today.
Asset sale completed
Northern Star advised it has sold two of its gold assets in Western Australia to Black Cat Syndicate Limited (ASX: BC8).
The Paulsens Gold Operation and the Western Tanami Gold Project were sold for a total value of $44.5 million.
Northern Star said these projects are "non-core" to the company's five-year strategic plan. The sites are currently in care and maintenance mode.
The acquisition was first announced to the market on 13 April. Black Cat has paid $14.5 million to Northern Star and an additional $15 million is payable by 30 June next year. Northern Star has also received 8,340,000 shares in Black Cat at 60 cents per share.
Four $2.5 million payments, totalling $10 million, linked to gold production at the mine could also be payable.
Commenting on the news, Northern Star managing director Stuart Tonkin said:
Paulsens was Northern Star's foundation asset and contributed immensely to our successful growth into a global gold producer. The dedication of our workforce to establish significant cashflow generation based on Paulsens enabled the future growth of Northern Star to what it is today.
Combined with the sale of Western Tanami, this is a good outcome for all and highlights our commitment to active portfolio management and driving shareholder value.
The gold price is currently edging higher, up 0.1765% to US$1818.90 an ounce, CNBC data shows.
Share price snapshot
The Northern Star share price has shed about 29% in the past 12 months, while it has lost 15% year to date.
For perspective, the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) has fallen nearly 10% in a year.
Northern Star has a market capitalisation of more than $9.3 billion based on its current share price.
