African Barrick ready to take over Kenya's Aviva Mining

All the necessary approvals have now been made for African Barrick Gold's (ABG's) acquisition of Aviva Mining Kenya Ltd, otherwise known as AMKL.

The deal, which was first announced in July, will see ABG acquire all the outstanding share capital of AMKL for an initial cash consideration of A$20m, made payable to Aviva Corporation. A further A$10m will be paid on the receipt of certain resource estimate targets.

Following on from the unanimous approval by Aviva's shareholders last month, the Kenyan Competition Commission has now formally approved the transaction, ABG announced on Monday morning.

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"All conditions have now been satisfied and the transaction will now be finalised," the company said.

ABG's Chief Executive Officer Greg Hawkins said: "With the final condition for the acquisition of AMKL now satisfied we look forward to continuing the successful exploration programme on this highly prospective land package.

"ABG has a proven track record of successfully developing early stage prospects into large scale deposits and we are confident of further successes in Kenya."

With the acquisition, ABG intends to continue with AMKL's current exploration programmes throughout the purchased licence areas and is looking to advance one or more projects to resource category level during next year. ABG has identified several key areas where it believes there is potential for develop.