Trading in gold miner West African Resources’ (WAF’s) shares has been suspended on the ASX after the company failed to lodge an announcement addressing a request from the Burkina Faso government to acquire a larger stake in its local subsidiary, Kiaka SA.
WAF’s securities were halted on Thursday at the company’s request, pending the release of details on the government’s proposal. The halt was due to expire with the start of trading on Monday, but WAF has yet to issue the required statement, prompting the ASX to suspend trading in the stock.
In correspondence with the ASX, WAF said the Burkina Faso government had approached it to acquire an additional 35% interest in Kiaka SA, which owns the recently completed Kiaka gold project in the country’s southeast. The request, the company noted, was for “valuable paid consideration”.
The Kiaka project recently entered production and is one of Burkina Faso’s largest new gold developments, with output averaging about 234 000 oz/y for 20 years from 2025.
Last week, WAF confirmed that it had aligned the equity ownership of its three mining projects, Sanbrado, Kiaka and
Toega, with the new Burkina Faso Mining Code. This resulted in the government’s free carried equity interest in each of WAF’s three operations having increased from 10% to 15% and the equity interest of the company reduced from 90% to 85%.
WAF also revealed in its interim report last week that the Burkina Faso government had enforced a non-discretionary dividend rule.
In August, Somisa, the WAF subsidiary that owns Sanbrado, declared a $98.35-million priority dividend to the government, equal to 15% of its retained earnings to end-2024 under OHADA accounting standards.
“In communications with the State on the above-explained priority dividend for 2024, it became apparent that payment of an annual priority dividend to the State in compliance with the text of the Mining Code has become non-discretionary,” said WAF.
The company stated that it expected that Somisa, Kiaka SA and Toega SA would each be required to make yearly 15% profit distributions going forward, with WAF entitled to repatriate its remaining 85% share.